Poll
Question:
For those who don't checkerboard, do you reverse brood boxes in the spring?
Option 1: yes
votes: 8
Option 2: no
votes: 5
It's my first year overwintering bees. I read up on checkerboarding and I am not running the right setup. I'm running two deeps. Just wondering what percentage of you guys reverse.
that's a no, but not a never. there are other things you can do if you really need to, like moving a couple of frames of brood into the box they are not using. in general, i find that if i leave them alone, they figure it out.
If switching frames around is checker boarding, no I don't.
As for switching hive bodies, I do if need be. Other wise if it isn't broke don't attempt to fix it.
As some will recommend switching hive bodies on a regular basis and not give any reason why.
All ways know what you are doing and "why".
If one does not know what and why they are doing it, they could be doing more harm than good.
No, I did not vote on this. :)doak
Can you please explain what checker boarding actually is? In detail please?
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesexperiment.htm (http://www.bushfarms.com/beesexperiment.htm)
The fist half of the article is describing checkerboarding. The last half is describing "opening the brood nest"
Most people who reverse do it for swarm control. Here's my take on swarm control:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm (http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm)
Here's my opinion of reversing:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stopswitching (http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stopswitching)