Hi Everyone,
Today I did a hive inspection on both (2) of my 8 frame medium hives. I am a new beekeeper in South Central PA. I started 2 hives on June 8 this year from packages and the queens seem to have done a fine job so far. Each Hive has 5 medium boxes, and honey is being stored in the top boxes for both hives at this point. Both hives have lots of sealed brood up through box 4 with honey on the end frames as well. I was under the impression that at this point in the season the egg laying should perhaps have slowed down a little but Hive 2 has fresh eggs filling the 2/3 of each side of the 2 center frames in top box 5. I am wondering if a hive this size will need an additional box for honey stores, or will it eventually slow down the brood rearing? I am thinking it is too late to put on yet another box, but will they need it?
Thanks!
I can't answer your question as I plan on getting my hives this coming spring. However, my setup will b similiar to yours. I plan on running 8 frame mediums at all levels. My question would be: if the bottom four boxes are brood and honey, how many supers can u add in a good year. It seems like the stack could be 6 or seven boxes.
Is this a reasonable expectation and do I need to plan on having that many boxes for each of my hives? It seems like a couple of weeks before the first frost you could feed sugar to start filling out the top box...if you don't plan on harvesting any of that honey.
An elderly gentleman (without internet) I know running mediums down here in south florida is always stacked 6 high although he runs 10 frames. Based on his experience I plan on getting to 6 high at least as well but I will be doing 8 frame mediums and it could also be geographical.
It is not likely they will draw another box this late but you could put another box on and see what they will do. If they don't you can take it off before it turns cold. They should soon slow down brood rearing and put nectar in the cells if there is any kind of flow going on.
It all depends on the individual colony the number of boxes it will need. I had one eight frame medium that had nine boxes all full with brood in the bottom four and honey in the top five at the end of the flow. But that is an exception for me. A couple others had seven or eight at the end of the flow. And some just had six. It is always good to have more then you need then to wish you had one more box or bottom board or top.
Dawn, with 5 boxes, I would not add another box in PA. You do not want that extra height that the bees will have to heat above the cluster.
Jim
I would agree with Sterling and Jim. The brood you see are the "winter bees". The adult bees you have now are the summer bees and will die out over the winter leaving just the winter bees to raise new brood next spring. The more winter bees, the better; usually :)
I don't think there is any magical number for the number of boxes for winter. I've wintered in a single 8 frame medium box just fine in Michigan (it was a smaller colony in the fall). Not saying the OP should squeeze down to 1 box though! Based on the report given, I would stick with 5 boxes.
Thanks so much for your input, I appreciate it! I will leave them at 5.
I would consider thinking about pulling some of the honey frames in all of the boxes and try to get it down at least one more. That is a big hive for winter. My (8 frame) hives will get 6 high during the flow, but, that causes two issues, one is getting a box off the hive that high up if full is difficult for me. Second, I get lots of moisture here and if they cannot heat the whole hive they will leave large areas of cold that mold and disease can start in. I look for going into my winter with a deep and a med super or 3 medium supers. 5 boxes is a big hive.
Look at the size of the cluster and decide from that...