Reversing Brood Boxes

[KONASDAD]

I want to reverse my brood chambers. When is the appropariate time to do this? What am I looking for weather wise, and what do I look for in hive before I reverse?

My bees are returning w/ pollen, a few orientation flights each day, and some capped brood begining to appear in heart of hive. Cant tell if nectar is coming in, but some bees return seemingly w/ nothing, flying high and no pollen.

[Michael Bush]

>I want to reverse my brood chambers. When is the appropariate time to do this?

In my opinion, never works very well.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stopswitching

> What am I looking for weather wise, and what do I look for in hive before I reverse?

It's a very bad idea to split the brood nest, in my opinion.  If there is brood in both boxes I'd leave them alone.  If swarm control is your goal:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm

[imabkpr]

In my neck of the woods reversing the brood chambers is part of spring manipulation.  I don't see how reversing the brood chambers would split the brood nest. Its normal for the bees to work up in a hive.  Charlie

[Michael Bush]

>I don't see how reversing the brood chambers would split the brood nest.

If there is brood in both boxes it will split the brood nest.  This is the goal if you're trying to use it for swarm prevention,  however, it's a big cost in work for the bees if it does.

[imabkpr]

Just reversing the brood chambers will not prevent thhe bees from swarming or split the brood nest.
A swarm prevention tactic is to remove frames of brood from the center of the brood chambers and replace with empty comb, so you will have, 2 or so frames of empty comb between 4 or 5 frames of capped brood.
In my opinion this is splitting the brood, and it will slow the colonies rapid growth.  Charlie

[buzzbee]

Is this assuming all the brood is in the top box and you want to rotate an emty from the bottom to the top ? Not sure I'm following,What if the brood is in both boxes,whats the benefit of reversing then?

[Michael Bush]

>What if the brood is in both boxes,whats the benefit of reversing then?

The benefit is it will set back swarming.  The down side is they have to rearrange the brood nest and may end up with a lot of chilled brood.

[Brian D. Bray]

Bees kept busy building comb will usually not swarm.  To insure this it is best to Force them to build comb in the brood boxes before the honey flow starts.  Adding supers with several frames of sarter strips or foundation will keep them in this mode. Initally,  This can be done by pulling comb frames from the outer edge of the brood area to make the bees build comb in the "center" of the hive.  If you have more than one brood chamber do it to all.  Another method is to move the outer frames of brood up into another box with some undrawn frames.  Replace the moved frames with foundation.  Thiis temporarilly makes for a bigger brood nest. But with the frames of brood centered in the box the brood chamber is kept in the center of the hive and the bees will move up to cover much better than other methods, lessening the likihood of chill brood.
Note: Swarm prevention activity will most likely slow the amount of harvestable honey.  If you do as described above the enlarged brood area can make up the difference if productivity by making more bees.