Actually, checkerboarding is not spreading brood, it's spreading honey.

Walt and I have had many "discussions" on the phone and on 
BeeSource.com. Some of his dogma I agree with, and some I don't. His 
bees in Tennessee are in super/deep/super broodnest configuration. In 
the spring, Walt's hives have that top super full of honey. It's that 
honey...called the honey dome by Walt, that gets checkerboarded. He 
claims this allows the bees upward expansion, and overhead storage of 
early nectars...from tree blooms. He claims that a properly 
checkerboarded colony will never swarm, and in fact, Walt claims zero 
swarms in years...although he hints that he had colonies swarm in 2012. 
He also alludes to what he calls "supersedure swarms." I've asked if 
those are different in any way...I get no answer.

His claim of 100% non-swarming by checkerboarding the honey dome is a 
bit hard to swallow. And keeping bees much further north than Walt, 
maybe I see things differently. He claims honey dome above the active 
brood rearing cluster. I never see that honey dome in my bees. By early 
spring the bees are up against the inner cover, with no overhead honey 
to checkerboard. Instead, I super early...at about the same time in the 
spring bloom development as Walt checkerboards. My bees move right up 
into the supers, but I can't claim 100% swarm control simply by 
supering. Once the bees are working in the supers, I still have swarm 
preparations in some colonies. So, we reverse the brood chambers at 
dandelion/fruit bloom, cut cells, and super accordingly. This allows 
continued upward movement of the brood rearing cluster and overhead 
nectar storage. We have very little swarming from that point forward, 
although some never give it up and further management is needed.

Mike

On 2/3/2013 10:06 PM, allen wrote:
> I haven't been following the latest articles on the topic, but
> basically, checkerboarding is just spreading brood according to a
> formula, with a catchy name.

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