In article <002601c3b03e$50aecdc0$48a59bd0@BusyBeeAcres>, Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]> writes >The reason *in my opinion* is in the way you manipulate your bees and >possibly lack of labor needed to do the kind of kind manipulation we follow. > > In the circles I travel in we all work our bees in the same manner. Very >labor intensive. This seems a little presumptive Bob. I am not sure you know what the nature of our management is (nor I yours of course), but it is intensive for sure, as we cannot get a honey crop which keeps a roof over your head here without doing so. We do not keep colonies 5 boxes high all year, or even aspire to: That is misreading what I wrote. We manage our colonies closely, using established and understood (but ever evolving) systems all through spring and early summer, using known brood areas and excluders. They are an essential management tool. They remain this way till the end of June or early July. We have a major value honey crop, heather, in August here which has returns proportional to bee power. The more bees of the correct type and age, the more honey. To maximise exploitation of this harvest we take away the excluders 5 to 6 weeks ahead of the onset of the flow (the flow itself is in a window about 4 weeks long), and allow the queen unrestricted laying area. This provides a large wave of young bees for the middle and late part of the flow in August. There is an old saying that 'heather eats bees'. A colony on a restricted brood area gives a crop over a part of the period, but late on the strength declines sharply. Plenty brood coming forward and the colony has more staying power. Hence my delight if the colonies were of massive power *at this time*. As the heather season wears on to its end the bees 'fill in' with honey down the colony as they retreat to the lower boxes and it is rare for the queen to be found in other than the bottom two boxes. By the end of the heather season in early Sept your colonies are down to wintering size and queen finding is simple. We generally, but not without exception, winter on singles, as this is adequate for our type of bee, and their relatively low winter stores consumption. they will eat a third as much as an Italian strain colony. The five boxes bit was just a romantic musing (as bee men do out of season), nothing more, and as has been pointed out, not a thing you really want to be faced with controlling except in a few specific circumstances. Murray -- Murray McGregor :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::