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Author Topic: Too many deeps, too much honey  (Read 3441 times)

Offline romduck

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Too many deeps, too much honey
« on: July 25, 2005, 03:23:47 pm »
I think that I'm figuring out what I've done wrong BUT I've not yet figured out how to makes things right. :roll:

In my area the major honey flow comes from Purple Loosetrife and goldenrod late in the season so I hadn't been checking my two hives that often.

We've had a great great Summer for flowers and I think that gave me an unanticipated honey flow. The two hives were two deeps high in June (usually enough) and I found them to be chock full O' honey, little room for brood. So I put another deep on each hive to give the queen more room to lay.

I didn't want to put on honey supers thinking that if I
a) used a queen excluder she would still feel cramped and would encourage swarming.
b) not use a queen excluder and she would scamper all the way up and start laying brood in the open, drawn cells that I had just provided.

Now what I have is two hives filled with 3 deeps each brood AND honey, but interstpersed in a very odd pattern (frames with one side capped honey, other side brood/pollen/honey, next fram all honey, next frame both sides brood/pollen/honey).

Both hives seem othewise healthy, but I don't want to go into Fall/Winter with three deeps each. I tried that last year with a very healthy hive and it didn't do too well over Winter. I'm assuming it had just too much to try to keep warm in those three deeps.

 :?:  Where should I go from here? Is there a proper way to get rid of that third deep as the end of the season draws near? If I put on honey supers would the girls start moving honey or nectar from the deeps to up top?

Both hives seem to be doing so well, I'm hoping that I can correct my error before we go into Fall.
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Offline RebelRx

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Check top box for queen & add excluder.
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2005, 04:11:24 pm »
To get the brood out of the top box make sure the queen isn't there.  Add an excluder between the top and 2nd box.  When the brood hatches that will clean it up and store nectar there.  Then you can remove it when it's all capped or add supers and remove them all when it's time to "winterize"

Offline Michael Bush

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Too many deeps, too much honey
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2005, 04:24:19 pm »
Most people running Ulimited Brood Nest use three deeps and leave them all on for winter.  There is much on this in the old ABC XYZ of Beeculture editions where the third deep is refered to as a "food chamber".  But if they are all the same size it's simple to put all the brood into one box if that's what your intention is.
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Offline romduck

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Too many deeps, too much honey
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2005, 08:05:26 pm »
Thanks for the replies.

I had tried to run three deeps last year with my best hive but it came into Spring pretty weak. Of course, there could have been a number of reasons for that, but I was sort of turned off from the idea.

I'll probably try it again this year though. I would imagine that the best move when winterizing would be to rearrange the frames a bit to put the most honey in the cent and upper slots since that is the direction that they will be moving.
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Offline wingmaster

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Too many deeps, too much honey
« Reply #4 on: July 26, 2005, 09:29:18 am »
If you have an extractor use it. Extract 8 frames and put them in the bottom box leaving a frame of honey next to the box on both ends put all the newly extracted frames in the middle. Do the same for the second box and add supers. If you still have a flow you will see the queen fill the extracted frames with eggs. I have done this a few times in the past to keep hives from swarming. When I work in the brood box I catch the queen and cage here till I am done. This way you don’t have to worry about hurting here when you are moving all the frames around. I let her go after I am done.

Offline TREBOR

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Too many deeps, too much honey
« Reply #5 on: July 26, 2005, 10:05:56 am »
someone told me if you want them to move the honey up that you should
put all the frames of honey below them in the first box, if its capped break the cappings, put on your shallow of DRAWN comb w/ excluder.
 It seems that the bees don't like honey below them and if you break the cappings and they have a place to put it ,they will.
 I tried this early in the season on mine and they moved it, though I don't know where.

or if you have an extractor !
 do the wingmaster thing!

p.s.
 I don't think they will move capped honey!

Offline Michael Bush

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Too many deeps, too much honey
« Reply #6 on: July 26, 2005, 10:58:21 am »
>I don't think they will move capped honey!

Exactly.
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Offline romduck

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Too many deeps, too much honey
« Reply #7 on: July 26, 2005, 11:08:10 am »
Thanks again. I don't yet have an extractor, but was going to be getting one anyway.

Also, I didn't realize that they don't like to move capped honey. Another important bit of knowledge gained. Thanks again.

 Unfortunately I'm worried about my ability to safely find and secure the queen so that she doesn't get smothere. I think that the difficulty will be in moving around the mixed brood / honey frames.

I'll give it a shot and hope that they move it. At this point I'm more interested in observing the bees and seeing what works.

Did I mention that I've also got my girlfriend helping me repair and paint all my hives and equipment so now I have supers with sunflowers and bees all over them? :wink:

A small price to pay for the assistance and I don't think the bees mind!
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