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I have nursed hives all the time without excluder. I like big hives.
Their capacity to handle big flows is good compared to several average hives.
If hive make one capped honey box, it need 2 others boxes where to put nectar to rippen.
2 years ago I had a hive on balance which brought 50 kg in 7 days. They added weight every day 7,5 kg.
it has no larvae in that week. The hive brought honey 170 kg in 6 weeks and drew 3 boxes of foundations.
First, you need a good queen and continuous selection to abandon average queens.
I use 3 brood boxes in summer. Actually the lowest act as pollen store and as nectar buffer during main flows.
With 3 brood boxes the queen need not to rise to supers.
When I inspect the brood boxes, I only open the top most. Nothing new in lower boxes what is not in the uppermost.
Strongest hives swarm first. Do a false swarm and put it onto foundations and your problems are away. When they have drawn foundations after one week, swarming fever is away. Join the hive parts. Otherwise they do not make honey yield. Leave a new queen into the joined hive.
Good honey yields come from good pastures. If you put a splendid hive on poor pastures, you get nothing.
To find good pastures is a key to get good yields. You learn find them when you situate hives in different spots and compare the results. Differences are amazing. 2-3 fold are normal, and even 5 fold exist even if the distance between spots are only 5 km.
I have found that the distance to nectar sources are the veryt important. If the canola field is 1 km far away, 50% of yield will consumed for the distance.
I move big hives ( like 100 kg the weight) so that I split the hives and pile them to sedan carry and then pile them in destination again.
Bee are calm and I move them during day light. I can put one box to gather the bees which are allready flying out.
If hive has capped honey boxes, I may shake bees off in destination and then take frames to extraction.
When hives get foundations in big flow, it keeps swarming fever off. If hives are too full of bees or honey, bees swarm very quickly.
And the worst in swarming fever is that bees stop foraging.
When you join hives, allways make a balance between fogagers and brood parts.
It is false that "in swarm every bee forage". Of course not. In good hive bees in foraging age forages and youg bees make home works. Both are needed.
Foragers die soon and during that time brood makes new home bees and homebees become new foragers. That flow must be continuous.
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