I'm just starting out. Buying a three pound pkg. Do I start with one deep hive body and add a second as the as the comb is drawn 7-8 frames? then the same for adding the Medium honey super. I will be using wired wax foundation. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks Gerry
Quote from: GerryL on February 14, 2007, 03:52:50 PM
I'm just starting out. Buying a three pound pkg. Do I start with one deep hive body and add a second as the as the comb is drawn 7-8 frames? then the same for adding the Medium honey super. I will be using wired wax foundation. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks Gerry
That measure of bees occupies perhaps 5-6 frames and draw combs. After 4 weeks new bees emerge so much that cololy expand.
Let it expand first to the whole box and let them draw combs. First box should quite full of bees before you pt second. I would put second box under the first deep. But it depends where you live and how warm you have there after 5 weeks.
Dont feed too much that bees fill valuable cells with sugar. All calculated together one frame would be full of sugar and then stop feeding.
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Just take your time do some reading when one box starts to fill up put on another in the mean time go read Michael Bush's web page especially the part on unlimited brood nest you will like it kirk-o
i just watched mine. my queen was a super layer and went right to work filling frames with eggs. we also had a really good early bloom on the fruit trees, so they had plenty to bring in. i added my 2nd deep at 4 weeks and a 3rd about 6 weeks after. then 2 honey supers. that was much more than i expected from 1 3lb package.
you'll kind of get a feel for it, and i think most people will tell you that more room is better than not enough.
i'll let others talk about going with all one size box. looks like a good idea but i got a good deal on deeps and frames, so i'll stick to those for brood boxes.
>I'm just starting out. Buying a three pound pkg. Do I start with one deep hive body and add a second as the as the comb is drawn 7-8 frames?
Adding the next box when that one is 80% is the typical plan. It will take a month before they really take off as it is 21 days before any of the new bees are emerging and there are still bees dying off the whole time. You can use any size box for brood, but I prefer eight frame mediums. When it ends up full of honey the deep will weigh about 90 pounds. The eight frame medium will weigh about 48 pounds.
> then the same for adding the Medium honey super. I will be using wired wax foundation.
I'd wait until the second deep is 80%, yes, but by then you can start adding another super when the old one is about half full. You may need to rearrange frames as they sometimes ignore the outside ones.
Ok start out with one when 8 frames or so are full add another let the bees do there job you will be fine
kirk-o
Are you talking about summer or spring or winter when you enlarge you hives just now or after a month?
Does he has night temperatures +12C?
He doesn't say where he is, but he's talking about starting with a package. I don't know of any suppliers that will ship you a package before it's warm enough for them to get started and grow. Here, that's April.
Thank you all for the great info. I am In maine I get my bees April 15.
Michael Bush, great site!
>Michael Bush, great site!
Thank you.