Waldemar asks:
Would you please briefly describe how you perform your spring teardown?  Is
the goal to evaluate the queen and check for disease?  And I would like to
know if you use queen excluders?

Every hive is reduced into one deep box, queen is evaluated, only a certain
amount of brood is left ,checked for disease & mites, and honey stores are
adjusted and fed if needed.

The other box is gone through and painted  if needed and returned later. So
every box gets looked at at the shop every other year.

I use excluders because  brood in the honey supers is a problem for many
reasons. Certain areas of the U.S. get by without excluders but the queens
seem to chimney up through the supers in our area if excluders are not used.

Bob

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