Space Management

[Michael Bush]

A new page:  http://www.bushfarms.com/beesspace.htm

Space Management

Important Concept

This may be the hardest and perhaps one of the most important concepts to grasp in beekeeping. Having the ideal amount of space is a tricky thing to manage but it makes the difference between prosperity and poverty for a honey bee colony. I used to find it very confusing when people would talk about always keeping strong hives. It seemed to me that a nuc or a split was always weak, by definition, but I will offer a new definition. A strong colony is merely a colony with a good density of bees.

Compression

Once you make this paradigm shift it becomes easy to maintain strong colonies. Any time you see a colony struggling, compress them. Put them in a smaller space. Remove any combs they are not occupying. Remove any combs they have lost control of as evidenced by small hive beetle or wax moth larvae. Freeze those and don't give them back until the colony has grown enough to manage them. An empty foundationless frame is better than an unoccupied drawn comb when you have an issue with hive strength. I call this process "compressing the hive". If you make the hive smaller and increase the density of the bees you will find that a struggling colony is suddenly a booming colony. It's like they were living in a house that had too high of a cost and now they are in one they can afford. Granted they are "affording" it because they have enough bees to do the work, but still they are not overwhelmed by the space that they have to heat, guard and cool. I have seen many a struggling colony turn around quickly when put in the proper space. Slightly crowded is best other than in the main flow when you have to work to keep the space open.

Fear of Swarming

The other issue, of course, is the concern that usually caused the problem of too much space and that is the fear of swarming. Beekeepers often give an overly generous space in order to avoid crowding that might cause them to swarm. When you have a colony that is really exploding and the nights are warm and there are plenty of resources coming in, then it's hard to put too many boxes on, but often these are put on too early or left too late. Whenever you see a colony struggling, one of the first things I would do is give them less space.

Nucs

Nucleus hives are handy for this purpose. Eight frame mediums are also handy in that they are half the volume of a ten frame deep, so you have more ability to adjust the space to be "just right". If I have two frames of bees I like to have them in a three frame nuc. If I have six frames of bees I like them in an eight frame box.

Wintering

Winter is another time that just the right space is what you want. I know you'll hear all these people say "the bees don't heat the hive, they just heat the cluster" but I'll guarantee you will be warmer in a small room than a large room when they are cold and both the same temperature. I have spent a lot of my life working outside or semi-outside building houses and little things make a big difference when it comes to cold. I want my hives going into winter with the space they need, not a lot of extra space. Any extra space, if necessary, should be on the bottom. This is part of the concept of overwintering nucs. A small cluster of bees can get through the winter if the density of the bees is high enough.

[biggraham610]

Yep, good points. Thanks. I also try and keep my hives as packed as I can, except during swarm season, and I always lose some anyway. G

[buzzbee]

Good points. And this year on two new colonies I left my reducers on most of the time.When warm I opened to larger opening if they were bearding or removed it when bearding with a large opening. I closed it back when temps go down slightly and bearding stopped. Both of the new starts made a lot of surplus as well as loading the boxes for winter. I did have carnolan queens this year,if that was the difference or not giving them more opening than needed I'm not sure. But it was my best year ever with new packages.

[tjc1]

Thanks for the timely information, Michael. I have a strong hive in 4 mediums and was thinking of trying to compress them down to 3 for the winter (once I check to see what is going on in the bottom-most box). If it is largely empty comb, I was thinking of just putting that box on top above an escape board. Any thoughts about this situation? If, on the other hand, the bottom box has considerable stores, should I leave it on? (the hive is quite heavy)

[Michael Bush]

Winter is two issues.  Space and stores.  No point leaving them twice what they need, but half again what they need is good insurance.  What they need varies by cluster size and your location...

[Maggiesdad]

So... follower boards in the TBHs - yes?

[Michael Bush]

>So... follower boards in the TBHs - yes?

That would be the best way to manage space in a TBH, yes.

[mtnb]

Aha! This is where that link from Jim came from. New page. It didn't seem like I read that before. Thank you Mr. Bush.

[Cricket]

Michael, thank you for this post as it was very timely for me as I am experiencing the slow down in production when they have a large space. I had planned to reduce the number of open/empty frames in my long lang. to help keep the bees together and not so spread out.

I haven't seen this problem with standard lang hives but it seems very noticeable in the long hive.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[GSF]

ditto, good info and timely.

[chux]

Awesome post, Michael. The concept of density is key. We want the colony to be packed in their space when heading into winter. And I must agree with your words about the temperature in the hive making a difference. This is just common sense. The temp inside the box is going to be slightly elevated by the cluster. A tighter space means more of that heat stays with the bees. A lower roof also helps. I've read that many believe the form factor of the horizontal hive allows the cluster to be closer to the roof, where the heat is rising from the cluster. If we don't have too many boxes on top in a traditional lang, that heat will not rise as far.