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Author Topic: Using (and not using) a queen excluder causing frustration and more work  (Read 7970 times)

Offline edward

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Re: Using (and not using) a queen excluder causing frustration and more work
« Reply #20 on: January 17, 2013, 07:37:06 am »
However, my honey supers are getting full with brood in no time at all.For example if I have a single brood box and add a super, the bees will immediately start filling it with honey and then on next inspection I'll find at least the middle 5 frames full of brood and the outside frames with patches of brood. If I then add another super on top, the same thing will happen. I have tested this with a total of 3 honey supers on top of the bottom box (4 deeps full of brood in no time!)The positive to this is that by continually adding room for the queen to lay, I never had a problem with them swarming.  Also I have been pulling frames of brood and using them to create more hives which has also been great. But I don’t want more hives yet, I want honey!I've been told that this problem is due to having poor/broody queens but every single one of my hives do this and I have even replaced some queens and still have the same problem.  So I think I’m doing something incorrectly.My inkling is that my bees know they have access to food all year round in my area so they don’t want to keep stores of honey.  I am in the subtropics surrounded by natural bushland and lots of flowers

Back to the problem, why are your bees swarming, and why are they making to much brood.?

OK I keep bees in an norther climate, but if your bees are European honey bees it seem that there is something wrong with them if all the do is produce brood, we call this a meat hive.
Are you restocking with new queens from the same source?
Maybee you need to try using a different breed of honey bees.
I could just bee bad genetics that the stock you have is good for making bees when you want bees that make honey.

In my world/mind bees swarm beecause of

1 Bad weather/no nectar flow
2 They are cramped in a small hive
3 Old/faulty queens
4 Or they are of bad breeding.
5 They have started swarming and keep swarming

Some of these the beekeeper can try to control

If you've done all that you can right as a beekeeper I would look for a different strain of bees with better genetically traits.

mvh edward  :-P


Offline Finski

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Re: Using (and not using) a queen excluder causing frustration and more work
« Reply #21 on: January 17, 2013, 08:57:54 am »

area so they don’t want to keep stores of honey.  I am in the subtropics surrounded by natural bushland and lots of flowers

If the hive swarms, it is not able to get surplus for months.
Forager power goes wit swarm.

And swarm is able to forage some but its home bees remain into the parent hive.
Both hives start to build up their colonies  bigger and cannot get good yield.




Quote
OK I keep bees in an norther climate, but if your bees are European honey bees it seem that there is something wrong with them if all the do is produce brood, we call this a meat hive.

Some hives need long time to become ready to forage a good yield. I found out one reason.
When chalkbrood kills in May lots of larvae, and then the hive will be healed in June, summer is too short and main yield will be over
when the colony is rippen to forage.
If chalkbrood kills 20% of larvae, that colony get not at all yield.


No honey enough? - too long flying distances, too dry soil.

Better to try move hives to better pastures.

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Offline Finski

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Re: Using (and not using) a queen excluder causing frustration and more work
« Reply #22 on: January 17, 2013, 09:03:05 am »
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The most popular habit to avoid swarms in Austaralia is

- keep two brood
- move all brood frames and honey frames over the excluder
- put the queen lay onto empty combs under exccluder
- empty combs and some foundations in new box


But if bees are mad to swarm, nothing can stop them because it is their natural habit to reproduce.
You maintain swarming if you use queens from swarmed hives.


Here is something

[PDF] 
Commercial Beekeeping in Australia


https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/downloads/07-059

This report is a snapshot of the Australian beekeeping industry. It describes ... Beekeeping in Australia has developed to meet our unique climate and flora.
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« Last Edit: January 17, 2013, 09:33:14 am by Finski »
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Language barrier NOT included

 

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