Hello Randy & All,

I said:
>> >However there is a way to get much better honey production with doubles.

Unless you do as Dee does ( and many did before the days of treatments) and
harvest honey directly from the brood area then one runs the risk of a
couple supers of honey being first placed in the brood boxes.
Bees will not place honey for the most part in supers until all useable
space is filled below.  The exception is usually frames on the far sides of
the box in a strong flow which can remain empty and the bees chimney up in 
the supers.

The 1946 book "honey Getting" by Lloyd Seachrist covers many of the high
points of making a big honey crop and points out the drawbacks of producing 
honey over double deeps.

The commercial trick is to get the bees to fill both brood boxes with bees , 
brood and honey before the flow starts. Losing a super of honey into the 
deeps is common. Many times mother nature helps by providing minor flows 
which fill the deeps before the major flow. Still in most cases it helps the 
bottom line to feed the bees and harvest the honey in commercial beekeeping.

 A hive on a scale gives information as to the amount of honey in hives but 
is only a general idea. Complete removal of most frames in a hive a couple 
weeks before the main flow gives me a better idea.

When to feed and when not to feed is always hard to figure in commercial 
beekeeping. Feeding is a big expense(and. getting bigger) as more farmers in 
the South are not planting cane plants and going to corn. Several processing 
plants went off line due to flooding in Iowa and I have been told the last 
hurricane took a processing plant off line in the south. One of the large 
plants is currently out of sugar for sucrose I was told today.

With the bees in a single deep ( Florida) most honey ends up in the supers 
but feed is needed as soon as supers are pulled in most cases.

The George imirie spacer can quickly pay for its cost and is very easy to 
make. In a heavy flow you get better honey production by letting the bees 
enter the supers directly. Sticks, rocks or simply propping the tops works.

Miller thought lifting the brood chamber off the bottom board allowing the
bees a bigger bottom entrance was the best method. I prefer to open up the
supers and even raise the top allowing the forager bees entrance rather then
through the brood chamber.

Miller has pictures of his hives propped up off the bottom board. I find the 
top much easier and easy to close when the flow ends. YOU HAVE TO PLUG THOSE 
HOLES AFTER THE FLOW ENDS TO PREVENT ROBBING.

However I have found that when all tops are propped you get a similar effect 
as pulling all hive lids in a robbing situation.  If all hives are normal 
strength. Dinks always need entrances reduced as bees will always rob dinks 
at flows end.

Bees robbing a "dink" is not a concern to me at year end as the honey went 
to other hives and I would have most likely depopulated anyway. Two "dinks" 
rarely make a decent hive and you can quote me!
In other words when combined which "dink"  queen will survive and be  around 
in spring. If both hives have not grown or produced honey why keep around?

Letting bees bring in all honey through a normal entrance and travel through
the area the queen is trying to lay and nurse bees are trying to feed larva
does not make sense. Sorry old masters! Doing such causes ( from my
experience) the honey many times to get placed in brood cells which is not
the place I want the honey placed.

We all know that when the hives normal way of functioning gets upset many
things happen such as swarming among others.

Bees crawling over the queen and nurse bees trying to get into supers or at 
least transfer nectar to the house bees.

Feeding bees in late spring when starving:
I like being able in early spring to add frames of honey to a cluster. About 
the only time George Imirrie and I ever had a disagreement on BEE-L was over 
my using frames of honey to save a starving hive. We had to agree to 
disagree. I would hate to guess the number of clusters I have saved by 
placing a frame of honey in touch with a starving cluster. Acts like a blood 
transfusion. You see the bees opening cells and passing feed. The bees are 
usually too weak to move the several inches needed to reach the honey but 
instantly get the feed they need.

North of me they use candy boards but I have never used those. I see candy 
boards as a valuable tool for feeding  starving hives as bees usually move 
upwards when starving rather than to the side but of course at times will 
move sideways.

The old timers ( older than me!) are predicating a cold hard winter in the 
Midwest. Myself and Bell Hill Honey are trying hard to get the bees ready 
for winter early. My help complains and says "what's the hurry?" but I have 
seen years when fall is skipped and we go into winter early.

Those reading in California, Texas and Florida disregard the winter warning!

bob

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