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Date: | Fri, 27 Jan 2023 11:45:13 -0500 |
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The single standard 10-frame brood chamber was designed to hold all the brood and essential stores of a typical colony, however, the types of frames and foundation and the spacing determine if this is true in any specific case.
Comb area on the frames vs the wood area and cell size and correct spacing are assumed. Larger cells, wide top and bottom bars and wide spacing spacing will reduce the actual useable area and volume for the bees.
No queen can lay a single full of brood, but some can do maybe 60 to 75% at peak laying. The space for feed is quite restricted though at such times and a colony can starve in days if there is no nectar available so most beekeepers tend to use two broods. That presents its own problems however but that is another topic.
Those wanting the most honey and willing to keep close watch on the hives use singles, but it requires some expertise compared to just giving more space because the bees are more inclined to fill comb near the brood and with an excluder, the brood is bound to be right close to the bottom super. With doubles and weaker colonies or weaker flows a honey band may discourage storing and even lead to swarming if excluders are used.
Singles, like excluders are rightly the province of experts and their abuse by the unskilled leads to many deprecating their use.
There is lots in the archives on this and more if you do some searching. It takes a while to learn all the tricks to fully exploit the BEE-L search engine but the results are usually most rewarding and it is easy to spend a day or an evening browsing around in there.
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