In article <002901c3badd$664f07e0$0fa59bd0@BusyBeeAcres>, Bob Harrison
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>>Taking this into consideration, why 5 deeps for brood rearing in
>heather honey production?
>
>Murray confines the queen in a box or two then removes the excluder giving
>the queen free rain of the five boxes which are also to store the honey in.
>Murray does not winter in five deep boxes.
>I believe I have got Murray's methods correct but I am sure he will correct
>me if wrong.

OK.  To avoid further confusion, Bob is comfortably nearest the mark
here.

We run our bees one singles for most of the season, rotating broodnests,
splitting, equalising, requeening etc etc as needed. Above the nest
there is an excluder, and all the rest of the boxes are above that,
including honey supers and brood nests placed there to hatch out.

(This is the local version of Demaree, where, once the nest is
approaching capacity, you raise it to the top of the hive, and put the
queen back on the floor in a fresh nest, under the excluder, with just
one bar of eggs for company. Prevents swarming preparations for 18 to 21
days before it needs repeating. Our US cousins will laugh at the work
levels, but with black bees everything is different.)

So, although the queen is confined in a single, it is not a cramping
system we use, just one where the management of a swarmy strain is
easier to control. Free rein management produces larger crops....of huge
swarms.

Swarming generally tails off in early July around here, and we pre-empt
that by ending the invasive management phase a little before that and
taking away the space constraint on the queen. We do NOT give 5 deeps
for brood rearing, rather decide on merit how much space each colony
need prior to the heather migration, and give it that much. A modest
colony probably goes up as a double, strong ones as a triple, rarely as
a four high. But that is unrestricted space, for all purposes.

At the heather we visit weekly to see how much space (if any) needs to
be added. This is when we reach 4, 5, even 6 boxes high (deeps). Using
shallows or mediums makes for even more, and a friend of mine had lots
on 3 deeps and 6 shallows this year, far better than me (I had 50% of my
hives in an area affected badly by dry conditions). 4 would be more
normal, and this will include all the honey.

I would NEVER expect to see 5 boxes used for brood. A lot in the bottom
box, perhaps 6 or 7 bars with substantial amounts of brood in the second
box, and possibly a few patches in the third, would be the most I would
expect. If you see substantial amounts of brood in the third box or
higher they have probably little or nothing in the bottom.  My remark
about the 5 box colony was simply that I could dream of the amount of
foragers that would give me at the heather and fantasise about the
potential crop from such a monster. My original comment was nothing more
than a ....'WOW, I WISH!'...kind of moment, with little reflection in
the practical situation I live in.

As the bees fill in they force the queen down to the bottom box,
sometimes the bottom two, and we rearrange things so that we get her all
down into one box for winter, bring them home from the mountains then
feed for winter.

So no 5 box colonies into winter. the occasional double, but not many,
all the rest on singles.

Hope this clarifies things a bit, but might just bring more questions.

Murray
--
Murray McGregor

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::