>    I have been told year after year to reverse the brood chambers every =
7 to
> 10 days.  This, I am told prevents congestion in the hive.
 
For some locations for some seasons, reversing of broodnests can
help to reduce brood nest congestion.  It can be used as a
low-labour management tool to good effect if carried out at the
right time.  One commercial operation I worked with did this twice
each spring as part of overall management, but you have to make sure
the first reverse is after the spring weather is *truly* settled.
 
I'll see if my ASCII art can demonstrate.  Change your screen font to
a non-proportional font such as Courier in order to see this!
 
___________________
|   h o n e y     |
|       .  .      | BEFORE:
|    .        .   | Normal late spring brood cluster.
|  .            . | Honey above the cluster.  No real
|_.______________.| room for expansion of broodnest,
|  .            . | as queen is loathe to move down.
|    .        .   |
|       .  .      |
|    e m p t y    |
|_________________|
 
 
___________________
|  .            . |
|    .        .   | AFTER:
|       .  .      | Empty cells into middle of broodnest.
|    e m p t y    | In middle frames, no massive =91honey
|_________________| barrier=92; nectar will be moved out
|   h o n e y     | to sides/top as bees require.
|       .  .      |
|    .        .   |
|  .            . |
|_.______________.|
 
 
Advantages: Quick.  Empty area ready for queen to lay in in middle of
broodnest.  Moving small amounts of nectar/honey could be
stimulatory.  Bottom boxes (esp bottom of frames...) get circulated
into the 'used' area so they don't get that dead grey useless
aspect...
 
Disadvantages: If it gets cold, you really have two broodnests, and
probably not enough bees to cover, so there will be brood dying.  If
there is too much of a honey barrier, the bees may not be able to
move it effectively and care for all the brood.  If your bottom box
frames are not good quality, the bees will refuse to work them in the
middle of the nest.  The two main pollen combs (outside frames from
the original top box) get moved to bottom box, not an ideal location
for them...
 
>    I have also noted that some people here are convinced that cutting qu=
een
> cells is useless since the bees already have it in mind to swarm and not=
hing
> will stop them.
 
C C Miller, eminent American beekeeper of early in this century:
"...if a colony disposed to swarm should be blown up with dynamite,
it would probably not swarm again, but its usefulness as a
honey-gathering unit would be somewhat impaired."
 
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Nick Wallingford
President - National Beekeepers Assn of NZ
NZ beekeeping: http://www.wave.co.nz/pages/nickw/nzbkpg.htm
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