Flow Hives - Honey

[Crusty]

For those of you that have the traditional bee boxes, do you bother having a double brood box with a honey super on top for harvest or just a single brood box, then queen excluder then honey super? The guy up the road has a double brood box this year but says he normally just runs with two boxes. He mentioned having the two brood boxes as a great way to build up the bee numbers but you'll get to harvest less. I think he's only doing it that way this year as he's got about 50kg+ of honey in jars in his garage.

 

[wobbly]

There are two hives on my property in a southern suburban of Perth managed by someone else the deal being that I get a couple of kilos of honey from each twice a year.

They each have a bottom brood box then a queen excluder and then two honey super boxes on top so a total of three boxes in each set up.

Wobbly

 

[Crusty]

There are two hives on my property in a southern suburban of Perth managed by someone else the deal being that I get a couple of kilos of honey from each twice a year.

They each have a bottom brood box then a queen excluder and then two honey super boxes on top so a total of three boxes in each set up.

Wobbly

What size boxes Wobbly, do you know? How many frames?
Nice deal by the way.

 

[wynnum1]

Flash flood inundates hundreds of hives


https://www.facebook.com/ntbees1/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE

 

[shaunous]

What size boxes Wobbly, do you know? How many frames?
Nice deal by the way.

Same deal we get up the range. Not sure on quantities but it just turns up in buckets on the mailbox every now and then.

 

[razzmeister]

From my (somewhat limited) experience I would say you might be best having a double brood box once the hive is established (like after a year or two)
Otherwise they are going to run out of space quicker and be more likely to swarm. Personal preference but that's what I normally do. Otherwise you'll have to be pretty vigilant in your swarm prevention.
The other option is to not use an excluder and they then just have free run of the whole hive. I also have some hives without excluders and the queens mostly lay in
bottom box or two anyway.

Crusty - also on your previous point about getting commercial size 10 Frame hives, just be aware if you get the 'standard' wooden hive, 10 frame boxes full of honey are VERY heavy!!
I normally use 8 Framers as they are a bit easier on the back!!
There are now expanded polystyrene hives available which I'm keen to try, but haven't yet. These should be lighter so the 10 frame versions of these might be a bit nicer to use!

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Lot of people dont realise just how heavy a hive full of honey is