>
>The primary goal of checkerboarding is to increase the brood area
>[and consequently the number of foragers]. Inserting empty comb in
>between frames of brood during the spring expansion phase, will make
>the colony develop at a much faster rate.
I have a hard time with "Checkerboarding." I, for one, would never
split up my brood nests in such manner. I can't really see how this
supposed increasing of the brood area will make a colony develop at a
much faster rate. The queen will only lay so many eggs a day.
Alternating combs of brood with empty combs won't increase that rate.
Increasing the volume of the broodnest won't increase that rate. I
would expect the bees to reform their broodnest to its original size,
once the brood nearer the outsides hatches.
Mike
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