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Author Topic: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?  (Read 8500 times)

Offline tillie

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Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« on: May 29, 2007, 12:54:09 am »
My most active hive at the beginning of the season had bees practically falling all over each other as they entered and left the hive....tons of bees.  They were in a deep (came from a nuc) box for brood.  When I added a medium above, they started drawing crazy comb (that I posted about) and I cut and straightened it.  They filled that entire box with honey - no brood.  I added a third box medium that they ignored. 

The numbers of bees diminished in this hive greatly and I think the queen felt honey bound and they swarmed while I was at work one day.    Today when I opened the hive I found that the second box is still frame to frame filled with honey.  In the third box, there is brood and honey.  The brood is good, but occupies a small area in the third box - and is located in 5 frames on one side of the box - the other 5 frames have only honey. 

About 10 days ago I looked in the deep and saw lots of brood. 

This means that this hive has
--brood in the bottom,
--only honey in the 2nd box, and
--brood and honey in the third box. 
   
    Should I leave things alone?  I know there's a laying queen because I saw eggs today.
    Should I move the honey filled box above the brood/honey box?

Any advice appreciated,

Linda T in Atlanta


Offline Cindi

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2007, 11:04:33 am »
Linda, if the honey in the second box is capped (or 3/4 capped on each frame), why don't you remove it and extract?  The problem with the honey in the second box up is that when the bees are travelling over it to get to the brood in the top box, the wax cappings can become stained with bee feet travel. 

If you want to leave the honey on, I would put the honey on the top and have the two brood chambers right on top of each other.  I think that the box of honey would create a barrier that the queen would not pass through to lay eggs and that could be a congestion issue.

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Offline beekeeperookie

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2007, 02:34:54 pm »
Cindi

I would love some hotcakes with chocolate chips in them :mrgreen:

I move the box on the top

Offline doak

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2007, 07:04:40 pm »
I aalways give mine 2 deep in spring, most likely over winter with two. I do my first inspections in Feb. and March. As soon as the 2nd deep is well on the way with brood I reverse brood chambers.

I don't know if there is a good strong colony in this area that can make out on one deep without something
going wrong, swarming, moveing up in a medium super, etc."Unless" they  are split, Or take a nuc from them, or, give a frame of brood to another hive every 4 or 5 days.

My march swarm had three deeps on by the middle of April. I did not reverse it.
Ofcourse they had drawn comb to work on.

I would move the super with honey on top, move the mediumbrood on bottom,"IF" most of the brood is in it, then the deep brood in 2nd place. If we have any amount of flows from here on out the summer, Once the Queen and brood moves back up into the deep, Put it back on bottom, then another deep on 2nd place. The brood in the medium in 3rd place will be fine, the nurse bees will not leave them.
Make sure you do have the queen back down in bottom when you do this final move.
If the number of bees have declined , do all of the above, (except) putting the other deep on.

Are you sure they swarmed? some time a crowded colony not prone to swarming, The Queen just doesn't have any where to lay eggs. But this shouldn't cause a large decline all of a sudden.
Thats what I have done
doak

Offline tillie

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2007, 10:38:18 pm »
Thanks, Cindi and Doak - I'm inclined to move the third box (with brood in it) below the honey filled box.  I don't like it that the brood is split by the honey -

Who knows why they did that but this was a crazy bunch to begin with.  I'm going out of town on Thursday so until Monday morning I won't be able to do anything with the hives, although I could snatch a moment before heading for the airport on Thursday afternoon to move boxes.  Truth be told, I miss the creative adventure I used to have opening this hive - there was always some sort of surprise with how they had built the comb - now they are more orderly and more boring - so I guess they are now showing their creativity with this strange brood arrangement.

I also have wondered if there is a queen in the bottom box as well as a queen in the 3rd box, as if two hives with the honey in between....but I haven't looked for a queen in either box.

Linda T bemused in Atlanta where it hasn't rained in weeks and weeks and weeks - we are 11 inches short in the rainfall department

Offline JP

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2007, 10:49:04 pm »
Linda T, I would harvest some frames of your already capped honey and put the frames back on the super, and add even another super on top of that one. This will encourage the bees to make more honey and then they can move up and make even more honey for you in the top super. Of course I am insinuating that you have a nectar flow on right now.
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2007, 07:41:20 am »
So there are two brood nests separated by a super of honey?  If so, my guess is there are two queens.
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Offline tillie

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2007, 07:42:50 am »
So Michael, if there are two queens should I leave everything alone and let the bees figure it out?  My thought is that eventually if there is a queen in the bottom box, she moves into the honey box above and up and up and meets the other queen in a battle to the death.

Perhaps I should look very carefully to see if I can find the queen, but I'm rarely very successful at that and there are a lot of bees in the bottom box.

Might the hive have swarmed and the small group in the five frames above the honey be a caste that started out with a virgin queen who is now laying?

Or should I do something?  I've read your site on two-queen hives and it sounds like it might keep going like that and I would add supers in the middle since this is not a horizontal hive?  Note: because I have the top propped, both the bottom and top box have a way to enter separately.

Boy am I having adventures this year....... :shock: :? : 8-)

Linda T trying to be a bee-supporter in my hives

Offline tillie

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2007, 08:46:25 am »
I just stood out and watched the hives for about 5 minutes - lots of bees coming in and out of the main entrance - only saw one bee go in the top.  That may not mean anything....but FWIW.  If there were two queens would the workers from the upper hive be able to come and go from the main hive entrance?

Linda T off to work in Atlanta
« Last Edit: May 30, 2007, 11:07:21 am by tillie »

Offline JP

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #9 on: May 30, 2007, 10:48:22 am »
It seems if there are two queens a split would be an obvious option. How often does that happen, Michael? That there are two queens.
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Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #10 on: May 30, 2007, 09:06:07 pm »
More often than you would think.  Having a split brood chamber is one way, having a mother daughter team during a supercedure year is another, and then there are the several ways in which we do it intentionally.
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #11 on: May 30, 2007, 11:38:39 pm »
>How often does that happen, Michael? That there are two queens.

I have no idea how often I don't know it.  :)  Only how often I see it.  Not common, but I see one now and then.
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Offline tillie

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #12 on: May 30, 2007, 11:43:45 pm »
Do you have any advice, Michael?  Should I make any changes in the hive or leave as is?  I'm leaving town tomorrow evening and have only about an hour in the morning if I need to do something....

Linda T

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #13 on: May 31, 2007, 08:05:36 am »
>Do you have any advice, Michael?  Should I make any changes in the hive or leave as is?

You can just leave them alone.  They seem to be doing fine.
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Offline tillie

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #14 on: May 31, 2007, 08:08:41 am »
If this were a "normal" hive, at this point I would add a super above the full frame of honey to give the bees more storage room. 

You're saying leave the bottom group "honey bound" as it were?

Linda T in Atlanta

Offline tillie

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #15 on: June 04, 2007, 12:59:04 pm »
I checked the hive again today and there is still brood in the bottom, solid honey in box #2 and in box #3, I think I saw the queen - at least there are many newly laid eggs and this bee doesn't appear to have a hairy thorax and is sticking her bottom into what looks like the obvious next cell for an egg.  The only reason I am not sure it is a queen is that she doesn't have her retinue all around her....solitary.  You can see newly laid eggs in orderly rows in the cells going up the right side of her.




Still wondering if I should add a box above the honey box since if this were a "normal" hive, that's what I would do when the top box got full.....


Linda T hopeful in Atlanta

Offline doak

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #16 on: June 04, 2007, 01:51:30 pm »
OK, If you can check the bottom and see if it has "eggs" in it at the same time the queen is in top, most likely you have 2 queens. If you have the extra equipment and want another colony, and there are plenty bees in top and bottom, make a split. Take the full box of honey and add another box to the parent hive and the new split. If you don't have a good necter flow right now, feeding is in order.
Wish I had that situation.
doak

Offline tillie

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #17 on: June 04, 2007, 03:26:01 pm »
As you know, doak, I'm just about 40 miles north of you in Atlanta where we have drought and a questionable nectar flow, but I have enough capped honey in various hives to feed, if that's what I should do.  So I'll check as soon as I can to see if there is evidence of another queen in the bottom and consider moving the one hive into two.

Are you saying harvest the full box of honey and give each of the split hives a new empty box?  Maybe to accomplish the feeding goal, if I do this, I could take some of the capped honey and split the frames between the new hives, adding empty frames to the sides....

Linda T having fantastic bee adventures in Atlanta

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #18 on: June 04, 2007, 08:33:07 pm »
Tillie:

Here's a possible solution for you: Put a super in between the lower brood box and the super of honey. Put a queen excluder on top of that super.  Invert the order of the remaining 2 boxes. 
If you have 2 queens the lower brood box will enlarge into the 2nd super and you'll still have an active brood chamber above the excluder.  If you have 2 queens you can then safely remove the upper brood chamber making a split and super the split as you make it.
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Offline doak

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Re: Strange hive configuration - should I do something?
« Reply #19 on: June 04, 2007, 11:23:46 pm »
Tille, I think Brian D. Bray hit the nail smack on the head.Why didn't I think of that?
OHwell!
doak