[HesterF]

Hi,

Newbie question number 1 coming up! I got my first two nucs three weeks ago - both happily set up in Nationals. They've been doing really well so I've stopped feeding them and then when I inspected yesterday, they'd drawn some of every frame and were rapidly filling up with brood and stores. So I reckoned it was time to put a second brood box on both (clearly could have done brood and a half but I'm going to try and keep the supers for honey only). They're both on there but then I started to wonder about how I do the next inspection. Do I just check the top box now? Because if I take the top box off to check the bottom box, isn't there a chance the queen (clipped) will drop out of the top box when I put it to one side?

H

[Greenerlife]

I've kept double brood boxes last year, but have abandoned that idea - nightmare for inspections IMO!  Talking with some experts today, and they have also abandoned the idea for the same reason.  Much easier (especially when you are learning) to have a single brood box but make sure they are well fed during the winter.

[HesterF]

But there are lots who run brood and a half into the winter and that must have the same inspection scenario - what do they do? At least this way I don't end up with a queen in a super going into spring.....oh, and hopefully more likely to survive the winter too.

H

[HesterF]

OK, first inspection of the double brood box was easier than expected. My teacher/bee supplier who advised the double brood box said just to make sure the top brood box was on top of the lid or a queen excluder while I inspected the bottom box. As it turned out, one queen was yet to make it into the top box - lots of uncapped supplies up there but no eggs - so that was easy. The second is laying like crazy and there were three frames of eggs in the top box - plus I saw the queen up there. Clearly I was careful about moving that to one side but then saw her again when going through the bottom brood box (which threw me for a while until I realised she must have moved down while I was finishing the top box).

The most interesting thing from my novice perspective is how different the queens are - one is laying like a mad thing and has some stores but not huge amounts whilst the other has lots of brood but far fewer eggs yet tons of stores. It's just weird that they both started with the same number of frames, at the same stage. Which is most likely to make it through the winter or is it too early to tell? Why are they so different?

H

[Beeducked]

Glad it went well!


I have had double brood boxes and never had a problem with inspections. As you found the queen often moves into the lower box to move away from the light so you do sometimes see her twice.