starter strips at bottom?

[rookie2531]

I had to make my own frames yesterday because my local guy left for holiday weekend. I want to checkerboard a box so they don't swarm. I have made them to the langstroth specs on beesource. I am going to brad nail the strip that I cut out the top, but do I have to put a strip in the groove that is in the bottom bar? I did drill holes in the sides and I'm going to string it with fishing line. They are mediums. This is my first time going foundationless. All the frames in my hives are foundation started and drawn now.

[Better.to.Bee.than.not]

no, you do not need a strip in the bottom. The bees will drawn the comb out to the bottom as they see fit. you're ok, with everything else, just don;t use like 8 lb or 10 lb line, the bees might eat through it. most use like 17-30 lb. if they do not use wire.

[deknow]

Unless the full combs are full of emerging brood and there are lots of bees, it can really set things back to do as you are proposing.

Checkerboarding is something very specific (read Walt wright's methods of nectar management)....it involves the honey frames above the broodnest...not the broodnest.

It is possible that what you plan wil
S
l work fine...but I would not recommend it ad there is so much that can go wrong with a MAJOR manipulation such as this .

[hjon71]

I wouldn't recommend checkerboarding this time of year either. Bees are storing nectar now not building comb. Sure they can build comb now but they will be slower than in the spring. I think late summer swarms are rare and only if the hive is really really crowded. If space is your concern, take 2 frames from the top box and replace with empty frames. Add a box with 8 empty frames and the two frames you pulled on top.

[rookie2531]

Better, I used 50#, it probably is overkill, but its done.

Deknow, I should have said opening the brood as both boxes are brood and stores.
What could really go wrong, if they don't draw everything, I can share/steal from other hives.
I'm trying to get more boxes full of bees prepared for winter because of my July splits.

Hjon, If I pull 2 full frames from under, that would still leave me with 8 foundationless frames
And I have read that those should not be side by side. The bottom box is deep and the top is medium, I added another medium and checkered (opened the brood). I cant and dont want to use deeps anymore and Im trying to phase them out.

[Michael Bush]

>I want to checkerboard a box so they don't swarm.

Like dean said, checkerboarding is actually a manipulation above the brood nest.  If you want to open up the brood nest this is a manipulation that is useful in prime swarm season which was probably late April in your location and it should be done very judiciously.  Usually just one empty frame in the brood nest unless the population is high and the nighttime weather is warm, in which case two might work.  Rarely I see a hive so booming that I can do three or four empty frames in the brood nest.  If you spread them too thin you will get a lot of dead chilled brood.

[rookie2531]

>

 Rarely I see a hive so booming that I can do three or four empty frames in the brood nest.  If you spread them too thin you will get a lot of dead chilled brood.

Mike,  I'm sincerely confused, it was much colder, even in the day, than now, when I put them in an empty box with zero comb. How cold checkerboarding with drawn,empty be worse than empty,empty?

[deknow]

They were in a cluster without brood to care for....brood that you lose if they aren't cared for.

[Jim134]

Remember one thing all the brood getting raise right now will have to live 6 months.  :shock:



                 BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

[Michael Bush]

>How cold checkerboarding with drawn,empty be worse than empty,empty?

What dean said... they had no brood to care for and they adjusted the amount of brood to what they could care for.  They also had it all consolidated so it was together.

[rookie2531]

Oh, I thought that when you, opening of the brood, that all the nurse bees that are covered on the frame was taking care of that frame. So the next frame over should have bees all over it too and they help each other?

[Michael Bush]

Bees will all help each other for sure, but every gap you make has to be filled with bees in order to keep the brood warm (93 F) and that takes a LOT of bees that may be needed elsewhere for other things.  And if you spread them even more there may not even be enough to fill the gaps at all.  "All things in moderation"

[rookie2531]

OK, thanks all.