Garry Libby, who is an excellent beekeeper in Eastern Mass., commented on
the potential disadvantage of using three mediums as a brood chamber.  He
also wondered if one Modified Dadant hive body would hold enough honey to
allow the bees to over winter in the Northeast.

Yes, I suppose having thirty frames to go through when examining the brood
nest is more work than twenty (deep and a medium or two deeps), and
certainly more work than twelve (Modified Dadant).  However, how often would
one really have to examine all brood frames?

For example, my sole brood nest setup is a deep and a medium, with the
medium on the bottom.  Right now I am in the midst of finding 40
over-wintered queens to replace them with year 2000 queens in my hives I
will use for comb honey production.  I find those queens by first putting a
queen excluder between the two hive bodies, waiting at least 4 days, and
then looking only in the hive body that has eggs.  I really don't look
inside the other hive body at all.  To my way of thinking right now (and my
thinking is different at age 60 than it was at age 50), three mediums would
be worth the disadvantages having to do with higher cost and more frames.

As to using only a Modified Dadant (and Dadant also still makes frames as
well as foundation) for over-wintering here in the Northeast, I have no
doubt that the 90 pounds of honey in such a single chamber would be more
than enough for bees to over winter on.  In fact, I have done just that on
many occasions.  However, there is another consideration and that is
swarming.

As I get older, and hopefully wiser, I keep finding more reasons to listen
to the old timers.  Often they are right in their advice, although their
reasoning may be doubtful.  For example, for many years I have railed
against the custom of over wintering in two deeps, maintaining that a deep
and a medium provides more than enough honey, and pointing out that
manipulating two deeps is work that is too heavy.  The old timers say that
the added honey from two deeps is necessary...and they are wrong about that.
However, they might be right on the frame space required!

Almost two solid weeks of rain in mid-late April, combined with several days
of 60-70 degree temperatures in early April, have led to severe swarming
problems in my area of the country.  Sure, my deep and medium setup had more
than enough honey for over wintering and maintaining the brood expansion,
but left little room for error in timing and I am now facing real swarming
pressure.  Another medium of brood space would have at least somewhat
relieved the pressure on the brood nest.  So perhaps a good reason for over
wintering in two deeps is that swarm control becomes less critical in
springs such as this one.

When I over wintered in only a Modified Dadant I had significant problems
with swarming as the brood nest was just too small.  I tried to combat that
by using a Jumbo and a matching super (the super on the bottom), and that
worked.  However, I gave it up as I could not buy more Jumbos or matching
supers, and I didn't want to run both Langstroth and Jumbos.


Lloyd
Lloyd Spear, Owner, Ross Rounds, Inc.  The finest in comb honey production.
www.rossrounds.com