Bob
>
>
> Triples can produce larger hives in my opinion with some supplemental
> feeding. 
Here in Alberta, they require no more feeding than 2 story colonies.
> Without the bees will fill all three deeps with honey before moving
> into the supers. 
I have been keeping triples for the last twenty years, but about 9 years 
ago we modified Farrar's system, the third goes on after the honey is 
pulled, then we feed and winter, in the spring late April early May, we 
reverse, around the middle of May we remove a full super split, ( 5 
frames brood, nine frames bees), without hurting the parent colony, 
which is now a two story brood unit and ready for the honey flow. With 
this method we have been able to add as many splits/increase units as we 
wish, 600 this year, we used to run 1500-2000 units like this, but do 
not want to increase past approx 2000 colonies, so we now run about half 
the outfit in triples and the rest in doubles. We also run them on 
double pallets, not four packs, but we only do honey, no pollination. 
With a limited supply of bees, we have found this system works very 
well, not easy, but successful.
Tim Townsend
TPLR HONEY FARMS
> I

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