On 5-Aug-17, at 12:31 PM, randy oliver wrote:

>
> Bob, could you please elaborate on how you run your hives in Ontario  
> in
> order to prevent the bees plugging the broodnest?
The bees do that, all I do is add medium boxes of comb when needed.  I  
don't know why bees would plug the brood nest, it doesn't happen in my  
experience

> Are your queens confined
> to a single brood chamber with an excluder?
yes one lang deep with 9 frames

> Can we assume that you add
> more supers for them to store that 10-20 lbs of honey a day?
I use my scale hive to guide me when to check if supers are needed.   
While I don't recheck the weight in the morning (busy reading Bee-L  
posts) Tibor Szabo does and reports significant weight loss due to  
fanning.

>
> And do you top super or bottom super?
>
I check the top super and if it is 70-80% full & starting to be capped  
I add another medium or two on top.  Dr. Tibor Szabo did a comparison  
of top vs bottom supering when he worked at Beaverlodge and reported  
the results in ABJ in the 1980's.  Briefly, it made no difference!  As  
my back will be 77 years old this autumn, I took his advice to heart.   
I buy my queen cells from his son of the same name and have a chat  
with senior each spring.

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W


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