I read that the best time to checkerboard in 8 weeks before the apples bloom. Well, in Chicago, that would be around the beginning of March!! There's still snow on the ground a lot of times in early March. Isn't it a little early to be manipulating a hive?
Also, can you checkerboard by simply adding a super over the deeps with a queen excluder?
Finally, I also heard that I should reverse the brood boxes. Should reversing and checkerboarding be done at the same time?
sorry for so many questions.
Ken
Reversing the hive bodies is a completly different method than CB'g. This should give you all the info you want about CB'g. http://www.beesource.com/point-of-view/walt-wright/ (http://www.beesource.com/point-of-view/walt-wright/)
>Chicago, that would be around the beginning of March!!
Yes.
> There's still snow on the ground a lot of times in early March.
Yes.
> Isn't it a little early to be manipulating a hive?
You are not manipulating any part of the hive that has bees in it. You are manipulating only frames of honey and empty drawn combs.
>Also, can you checkerboard by simply adding a super over the deeps with a queen excluder?
You should not put an excluder on when it's still cold, and you SHOULD be checkerboarding when it's still cold.
>Finally, I also heard that I should reverse the brood boxes. Should reversing and checkerboarding be done at the same time?
Reversing should not be done if you are checkerboarding. In my opinion it should be done at all, but definitely NOT if you are checkerboarding. Do you understand what checkerboarding is?
There are two things described in this article:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesexperiment.htm (http://www.bushfarms.com/beesexperiment.htm)
The first is checkerboarding. The second is opening the brood nest. You should NOT open the brood nest until the weather is warm. If you want to understand checkerboarding read Walt Wright's articles.
As MB said, CB involves no movement of brood! Folks often confuse this and compare CB'ing to hive reversal and opening up the brood nest. They are not the same
It is about giving a colony growing room and not reaching a ceiling to begin backfilling. Definitely no use of a queen excluder ( CB'ing promotes free ranging queens)!
Walt uses apple bloom as a reference for his area. It may be the same for you.
I have no apple bloom, so it is based from the start of white wax in my area. CB 8 weeks before white wax. That happens to be in about two weeks for me.
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,4205.0.html (http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,4205.0.html)