Alan said:
the required cells would be 46000, leaving only 15325 cells for pollen and
honey storage, close to brood , drone brood and the odd bit of damaged comb.
Perhaps not an over generous surplus of space.

The above figures address the  amount of cells needed to get  maximum egg
laying *if* the queen were laying 2000 eggs per day when confined to a
single box..

The reality of the issue is in my opinion one of congestion rather than
number of eggs. With increased care  one can keep a queen confined to a
single box and get a decent hive of bees  in our  area
with the addition of honey supers but the problem lies in the 2-3 weeks
before supers are added.

Also you can not get  enough honey stored  *and* young bees produced for the
bees to survive a severe Missouri winter in one box. I have wintered hives
in a single deep (not over a strong hive) in a mild winter.

In Missouri we have got what we call "Blackberry winter"  which is a cold
week around the time the Blackberries bloom. Most years the queens shut down
egg laying for a week. We have never been able to figure out why as  the
night temps and day temps are similar to several weeks earlier when she
continued to lay eggs.
Comments?

Congestion is greatly reduced when the queen shuts down egg laying due to
congestion and not being able to maintain the proper config for the brood
nest. I would not choose a breeder queen which is so prolific as to do a
pattern in times of intense nectar coming in which is   spotty and random
instead of choosing a tight pattern  no matter how many eggs per day she
laid.

I myself reduce  many hives into singles in early spring but  when short
intense minor flows are liable to happen I like to add a second brood box to
keep the bees "out of the trees" *and* prevent  the stopping of egg laying
due to lack of cells for the queen to lay in.

Bob

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