JoelN
Joined: 08/31/09
Posts: 7 |
Reversing boxes
06/23/10 4:57 PM
I reversed my deep and medium supers a couple of months ago, and now I'm wondering if it's all right to change them back. The reason for my wanting to change them is that I have three frames of wired foundation that the girls haven't drawn in the medium and wonder if they might be more interested in it if it were on top. I don't want empty frames in the hive going into winter.
A related question: does anyone sell drawn frames, or is that a rare commodity?
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newbeeboy
Joined: 03/28/07
Posts: 84 |
RE: Reversing boxes
06/24/10 8:12 PM
Let me understand your set up here. You have the bottom brood chamber that is a deep, a medium super, then an additional deep super on top? Now is not the best time to be reversing anything. Your best opportunity to dry foundation is during a honey flow however. I would move the foundation frames between frames of drawn comb to try to entice the bees to draw it out. If the medium is low in the hive, it should be your top super at present unless you have brood in both the uppermost and middle super.
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vinobob222
Joined: 06/27/10
Posts: 5 |
RE: Reversing boxes
06/27/10 8:22 PM
Re reversing deep and shallow bodies, almost all beekeepers use deep bodies for brood and shallower bodies for honey. However, Clayton Farrar, professor of entomology at the University of Wisconsin in the 1940s and thereabouts, recommended that beekeepers use only one size box for both brood and honey, thus allowing the beekeeper to freely move both brood and honey frames among colonies. He settled on the 6 inch plus so-called Illinois super, but wrote that almost any size would do so long and all boxes were the same size. Professor Farrar trained at the time many, if not most, of the professors of entomology in US universities 60 or so years ago. He was an original thinker on how to keep bees and well worth reading. For example, he said packing hiving for winter was a waste of time and probably detrimental to the bees. He also had much to say about hives need for upward ventilation. He is well worth reading if you can find his writings. What he was saying, in essence, is that many beekeepers keep bees the same way their father or grandfather kept their bees, thereby repeating whatever mistakes they may have made.
Re alternating frames of foundation with frames of drawn comb, some bee books counsel against this, but I do not know.
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newbeeboy
Joined: 03/28/07
Posts: 84 |
RE: Reversing boxes
06/27/10 10:07 PM
Is there a point to all this? I really don't care what "books" have to say. Some experience and having spoken with long term beekeepers helps me make decisions about what to do in the hive. The main thing is for a beekeeper to be just that...a beekeeper and not a bee "haver". The previous advice is provided to assist someone who is having trouble at present and in my experience this has worked well.
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vinobob222
Joined: 06/27/10
Posts: 5 |
RE: Reversing boxes
06/28/10 11:41 AM
Say what? Newbeeboy writes, "I really don't care what 'books" have to say." Well, so much for Shakespeare and The Bible, etc. It's pointless to dialog with somebody who disparages what books have to offer. However, I'd like to point out that the professor I mentioned in the earlier post (above) was also a very successful producer of honey
as are many of the authors of bee books,e.g. Langstroth, CC Miller, the Dadants, A.I Root, etc.
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vinobob222
Joined: 06/27/10
Posts: 5 |
RE: Reversing boxes
06/30/10 5:05 PM
Attn: NEWBEEBOY. Re your e-mails about reversing boxes and alternating frames of foundation with frames of drawn comb in a hive, please post other tips on keeping bees. Does your posting name of NEWBEEBOY mean you have just recently begun keeping bees or do you have many years of experience keeping bees?
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