Thank you to everyone for watching and supporting our videos! If you have any questions about our videos, please check out our list of FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS on our website, which can be found at honeybee.uoguelph.ca/videos/frequently-asked-questions/
I am curious to learn what degree/education Paul has. He is one sharp dude concerning bees. One does not need a formal education to be 'educated' in many fields but I am curious what degree might lend itself most helpful in the study and management of bees.
I'm so in love with my bees! They're wild so swarmed only to return again with new queen, this time finding the Langstroth box instead of the siding of my house! Couldn't be more in love than watching them in all of the natural ways they deliver life to the world! Not planning on taking their honey as they are wild and will need to weather through lean times but such a privilege to be chosen in their lives. Awww!! Makes my heart soar!!
I do not know how anyone can give any video u do a thumb down, your videos are wonderful and they teach us a lot it is like going to bee school and I hope u will always do them Thanks Paul and have a wonderful day
It is a touch screen issue i guess, some people have large fingers and when they want to touch on "thumbs up" they may touch "thumbs down" and may not aware of that.
I'd have to agree with you Frances. But, there are those beekeepers that only do it one way, and it's their way only. These are likely the thumbs down people. These are also the people to avoid asking advice.
New Beekeeper. I got my Nuc last year. Pored over every video from you guys and stayed with a single brood chamber. Here in the very wet lower mainland of BC, what kills bees is moisture (and varroa too, of course). We had a very cold (by our standards) winter but it was also extremely wet. I prepped my bees with a quilt box, integrated with a feeder to help them over the winter. It’s now early March, nighttime temps are zero C and sometimes sub zero. I’ve opened the hive and without taking out frames (cos the warmest is still only 10 degrees) I can see that I’ve got a full 10-frames of bees looking up at me! The single survived!
I successfully wintered a single brood box in Northwestern Wisconsin this year. I don’t think our climate here is too far off from yours. I plan on splitting two of my doubles this year. Thx for all your excellent videos!
Thank you for the awesome way of explaining the differences between the single and double. I’ve been struggling with deciding what way to go. I wanted to stick with single, but was concerned about preventing swarming. Although I’m sure a double will swarm just as easily if they want to. Thank you again!!!
In youtube, search for "Devan & Single Brood Chamber" He explains the numbers. In short, 1 box is WAY WAY more than enough for the queen. (he's also a Canadian, great videos!)
Excellent Mr Paul!!!... I am a beekeeper from Greece and I work with Langstroth and Dadant hives... Both of them single not double... Of course I m inspecting them every 4 days for 2 months for queen cells and I destroy them to prevent swarming but when swarming period pass away I have powerful bee colonies and they fill the supers with honey in 3 days!!!! The benefits of the singles!!!!!
Finally someone that I can relate too. Used single brood boxes for all my hives and by only using half boxes for storing honey never had to feed any artificial food. Okay had too leave a good bit of honey on to carry them over the lean times but when things started to happen they were well prepared. Thanks and have subscribed.
Great explanation! I live in a warm climate and everyone I know uses single brood boxes with two or more supers and it works great. It's really interesting to see how other countries set up their bee boxes. Thanks for this informative vid.
Nice to hear directly from the BBC. It is interesting to see how beekeepers around the world accomplish their goals in different ways. We seem to be slow to use singles here in North America! Thanks for your thoughts.
Another great video Paul. I knew this one was forthcoming and was looking forward to it. I converted to the single super brood chamber a couple years ago. As you indicated, it would be best to try a couple hives at first. Once again, thanks to you and everyone at the UoG for sharing your great work and knowledge.
I tried a single brood chamber strategy last year with my 5 hives and couldn't have been happier, seeing 9 or so frames of brood in the bottom deep was exciting and easy to manage as you described. The winter of 2018 I had 5 single brood chamber hives all make it through this winter into 2019, treated with oxalic acid dribble in the fall which was very effective after I fed them up to weight and they went broodless.
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre hello sir did you hear of ABU salman systeme if so what do you think about it if not please give it a try and tell us the results i m waiting for it thnx for this golden content and advices
I'm trying it too but my strategy is similar. It starts at the splits. I use queen castles and head off swarms. I end up with 3 frame nucs that I expand to 4 over 4 deep frames. Some years I super the 4 over 4's in duplexes. If they survive winter the 8 goes into a 10 frame deep. Add two frames, excluder, and supers. Let er rip. After the spring summer flow I sacrifice a super and winter as a deep with a medium on top. If it still survives winter again I put queen in the deep and the super goes above an excluder. It works great. It's basically a three year program. Every year I'm starting nucs that hopefully are next year's honey makers. This plan works for me in central Illinois. Never buy bees
@@mikeries8549 sounds like a good strategy to me, everyone has something unique that works for them, I'm glad you found yours. And yes, it's nice not having to buy bees.
Great video. Thank you. Years ago when I started keeping bees I went for the double brood chamber. Within a year I got fed up with needing help lifting that top chamber. Now I run all horizontal Langstroth hives and mix in some top-bars. Yes, I need help initially setting out the hives but after that, no more heavy lifting.
Hi Patrick Sounds like you've figure out some good ways to avoid lifting that 2'nd brood chamber. I'm not familiar with horizontal Langstroth use but one of my U of G profs, Gord Townsend, developed the top bar hive for use in east Africa.
Great video on a management method that is a hard to find on the internet...greatly appreciated. I already had plans to modify to single brood boxes. I'm in SE Michigan, so nearly the same weather as Ontario. I'm planning on moving all the brood frames, pollen, and queen to the bottom box with the excluder about 3 weeks into May. My thought on the timing is to permit the build-up for the spring without the excluder. The reverse thought as well...so in the fall not to have an excluder on so that the queen can move around and not get froze out (besides I can imaging metal inside a hive in the winter would get really cold like the outside of a car...or much like a heat sink). My main motivation for the single brood chamber is to reduce time spent inspecting, and just be move efficient. Lifting a box to inspect from the bottom just makes more sense instead of pulling out every frame. So what do you think of the the timing for consolidating to single brood chambers & placing excluders at approximately 3 weeks into May (SE Michigan)?
Hi BOH I like you handle name! If you are wintering in doubles maybe you'd consider letting them build up to filling most of the two boxes and them splitting them into two. See our 'Splitting Beehives' video. If so make sure both boxes have lots of brood. Queen excluders are a beekeepers best friend despite what you might here. They keep things simple and simple often leads to success. It's not however a good idea to leave them on in the winter. Your plan sounds good but I think I lost your thought in late summer. I like to think brood comb is brood comb and honey comb is honey comb.
Here in Aus nearly everyone use Langstroth frames. The commercial guys tend to use 10 frame boxes as have lifting devices where as us mear mortals use 8 frame. Due to our climate etc nearly everyone uses 1 brood box and 1 super over winter. Leave the equivalent of about 4 frames honey to feed if no winter flora. The 8 frame brood boxes seem to be big enough but have moved a couple frames brood or honey above the QX if think need more room. Swarming still happens if she wants to. Sometimes we find her Majesty at home above the QX. Not quite sure how this happens but just reverse the boxes and put her home on the bottom. It maybe a climate thing but inner covers not really popular: especially when use SHB traps on top of the frames. Burr comb ot the top of the frames and in the top cover is great if forget to extract in time . Ventilated bottom boards not as common as I think they could be but our top covers are ventilated to get a bit of air flow. Amazes me when see hives set up unprotected in scorching temps of the middle of summer - even though they keep the hive at similar temps and have massive veils on the outside of the box
Yes I am single brood box all the way. I am not sure if you mentioned it but I like that I need less formic acid to treat a single box then I do a double box. The queen excluder is an extra expense and very necessary but I think it is well worth it. I have had great luck getting them to work above the excluder by lifting honey frames up from the brood chamber all covered in bees but with no cells or queens to be sure
I use single hive management. I am from Saskatchewan north of Saskatoon. Only have 2 -10 frame hives I got last June and 2 late season 6 frame nucs from that. I indoor wintered in a tiny shed kept at + 4 from october 31, 2018 Took the hives out of the shed last Tuesday, March 19, 2019. I gave them a couple days for cleansing flights. Friday March 22, 2019 . I did a quick partial inspection to check for stores and for any sign of brood also scraped the bottom boards. A bit early and a bit cool at only +10 C high but there is discussion as to whether bees brood in the winter shed. I wanted to either confirm or dispel the idea. I tipped them, counted frames of bees from below. Scraped the bottom boards. Re placed the brood chamber on to the bottom board then started from the top side and quickly went through from 1 side counting stores until i reached brood. In each hive I found larva ready to be capped and capped brood on the first frame of brood I came across confirming brooding happens in the shed. I didn't go in any farther. I quickly reassembled the hive. Threw a pound pollen patty on top of the 10 frames and 1/2lb on the Nucs and closed them up. Conclusion: 100% survival and 4 laying queens. Honey bees do brood in the winter shed since late stage larva and capped brood can't take place in 3 1/2 days. The largest 10 frame had 7 full frames of bees and still had 3 1/2 frames of honey on the one side, as stated I didn't go right through the hive. I still had pollen stores in the frames but the 2 lbs of patties I had put in that hive immediately before I put them in the shed was entirely gone. As it's still early and weather is volatile, Besides the pollen patties I also put about 2 gallons of 2-1 open feed sugar water and about a pound of dry pollen to give them something to do but they have lots of stores in the hive if weather prevents that.
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre My wife wants to do honey now but the only reason I got the bees was to help the species. I'm not disciplined enough to be a scientist but I'm adventurous enough to try different things and observant enough to tell if it made a difference. I've watched 100s of videos many times. So while I understand how to do it I have less than a year of actual experience. The only thing I can say is what i'm doing and observations. As far as teaching goes I leave that to the pros like you folks. Of all the videos I watched there are 5 pages I recommend to newbies or folks having problems yours is one of them.
In Texas i use double brood boxes because they are active alot of the winter and need alot of stores because of it. I've lost two hives that were doubles due to lack of food already in March. They don't really cluster here so stores is important. At least in my view. In spring you have to rotate the boxes so they move up into the now empty frames but once you're used to having two brood boxes it gets easier to deal with inspections.
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre im the experimenting type. May try a single and see how it does. Do you find that the queen excluders inhibit them building comb above them? Or do you let other hives draw the supers comb out?
Hi Again We usually mix some drawn comb together with the new foundation. You could see our video on 'drawing comb'. As long as we have a good flow on the bees come up through an excluder quickly.
In Chile, where i come from, almost everybody uses single brood chambers, and usually with no excluder. Only once have i found a queen laying on the super, and i realized it was because i put a frame with polen in the super ( i was just starting out with beekeing). I have been thinking of making my own 12 or 14 frame brood chamber, (with normal honey super on top) because i have found queens laying on the external frames on the chamber, where there usually is honey. Maybe a design with removable inner walls to extend the chamber when needed.
Hi Marco That's interesting that so many beekeepers use singles in Chile. Without excluders your timing has to be perfect on supering and you need a strong, predictable, early nectar flow to keep the queen from moving up. My preference is to experiment with hive management techniques using standard equipment. There are many advantages to standardization.
I understand, of course, in a big apiary it would not be practical to use non standard equipment. I only have 6 hives, mainly for learning and experimenting purposes. About 15 years ago i started with 500 hives and it was a big mistake, beeing an unexperienced beekeper (wich i still am). I am starting again, no rush this time. I have had these collonies for four years now, in a secluded location, aiming for minimal or hopefully no treatment. For the past two years i have had no losses and have been able to grow a little, but this process takes a long time and knowledge, i think i will have to add another 10+ years of studying and practicing :) Your videos are of greatest value, thank you!
The part that I'm having trouble finding answers to is how exactly you get a single brood chamber hive through the winter. Is there sufficient honey in a single deep to last a long winter? Do you need to feed them during the winter? If so, what do you feed them, when, and how much and how often?
@@shannjill grow Zone 4a I bust them down to a single in September and feed until they stop taking it. I On a balmy 32f + day after Christmas I throw a couple winter patties on top the cluster. I used to do candy boards but breaking them down in the Spring was a pain.
@@shannjill If I would be going through and making sure that every frame that had resources was in the same Box. If the Box is truly empty there's no reason for it to be Part of the hive.
Do you leave a super of honey for them over the winter....? Uncertain about the single brood chamber...not enough space in there for winter honey, right? Or wrong? Appreciate your advice?
Great topic, I watch and subscribe to your channel. Your approach to bee keeping is awesome because Jamaica and Canada have similar approach to beekeeping. I am trained beekeeper with over twenty years of experience, I am living in the u s originally from Jamaica where I had my small apiary. I used single brood that worked well for me, My first from four colony of bee 3 medium 1 shallow super harvested half drum of honey. So I have experience working with single brood. When I get a place to setup an apiary I will. Good job guys.
This is my 3rd year with bees. I quickly learned how hard double hives are to manage, heavy. I only have 2 hives but I've decided to do single chamber on the quiet because where I am they push double chamber. To my relief I found out a gentleman that helped me get started is also doing his hives single chamber this year on the quiet too. We only know because my husband saw his hives. He has much more experience than I do and it encourages me to know he and I came to the same conclusion. I have a lot to learn and your videos are much appreciated and needed. Thank you.
Come out of the singles closet Barbara! Be proud to be different:) I understand what you are saying though. I was a skeptic initially too. Here in Ontario singles are the favoured way to keep bees. Good luck!
Great video!! I run my honey farm on single brood too!! Much easier to inspect and manage. No difference in honey crop compared to brood and a half or double brood. Found with double brood they store to much honey in the top brood! Great work 👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks Paul for sharing the single vs double perspective. I think the reasoning for so many starting with doubles is based on the literature available on the internet that is pro double boxes. I watched Devon Rawns video on singles and the reasoning is very clear. Many new Canadian beekeepers read that they need 80-90 lbs of reserves going into winter. The only way they see that happening is to have 2 brood boxes whereby the top box is where the reserves will come from for going into winter. Most hobbyists can afford to feed syrup in the fall to achieve the required reserves for winter. The simpleness of singles makes it worthwhile. This I have learned the hard way. Great series from U of G.
Excellent video. I want to start single brood management. This is my first year and I don't have drawn comb only what bees have drawn so far. I am feeding to help with comb building. I know if I super a hive for honey production I need to take the feed off. How do I get started without drawn comb and not feeding?
2 questions, #1- what’s the diff between a super and a honey super? you mentioned both. #2- with a single brood hive, you take even the first honey super off during winter even though they don’t store much food in the brood chamber? Does that mean you have to feed all winter?
1. no difference - we often use super and honey super interchangeably. 2. We feed as soon as the last super is taken off. We feed enough that the bees store all the food they'll need for the winter in the brood chamber. You could see our video 'Feeding bees and Overwintering'.
I have an 8 frame hive that I’ve single brood chambered every year (including overwinter), and I’ve never had a problem. I live in the North West of Toronto.
I am in Southeast Texas and was shocked recently to find 8 out of 10 frames in my super already full of capped honey. The bees worked faster than me. I found myself running here and there to get extra supplies for more suppers and another hive I captured from a swarm. I also like the concept of single brood, mainly because it takes less time inspecting...
You are welcome Doug. A 12 year old ( SidthebeeKid) wrote today to say he had caught three swarms this week!!! He was super pumped about getting into bees. I don't see enough swarms around here for that to be a good option of getting a start. All the best in your beekeeping career Doug.
Do you leave the first super on for the winter so the bees have something, if they are not storing much in the brood chamber? And do you leave the excluder on all winter? If not what's to keep the queen from moving up so that she starts laying in the super? If it's really cold can they break cluster and go up and get it? I've had long cold spells where I'm at and it looks like they starved because they didn't move. Lots of stores left but empty around the dead cluster.
One more comment...I noticed your hive boxes all have holes in the center near the top...this spring I'm drilling 3/4" holes in all of my boxes, and then using #8 tapered cork to close up (fit perfect, and not hard to remove), or just leave out to keep open...depends on the temperature...I really think this is a great way for the hive to fly in/out to arrive where they want to go inside faster, as well as for ventilation.
Hello, beautifully rendered videos - keep it up, a Scottish beekeeper here: I've noticed the US and Canadian beekeeping videos on TH-cam are always discussing this issue of rearing brood in a single brood box rather than double. I don't understand why this is such a big topic of interest. Can the community give me a bit of background to this? In Scotland a double brood is generally the innovative practice as Queen cells in this configuration are normally built at the bottom of frames in the top brood box. So in swarm season you can just tilt the top box up to check for swarm cells and generally if time is of essence you have quickly done an inspection. Also heat from the brood in the bottom box helps to build comb in top box / keep upper brood warm. There is an issue in a flow of bees piling honey in the top brood box and there is no room for her majesty to lay but otherwise seems a warmer set up.
Hi there in Scotland! Double brood chambers were the standard here but most of us switched to singles for a number of reasons. Many of them are mentioned in the video. It's still a topic of interest here as those that keep bees in singles realize the benefits but have a hard time convincing other beekeepers. I too was skeptical but I won't look back.
I will be moving to single brood chambers this year. That as well as wintering them inside a somewhat climate controlled shed during the winter months.
As your colony grows in number with a single brood chamber and you add supers on. How do you reduce the large number of bees back down to the brood chamber when the supers are removed for winter and get them to fit without swarming?
Swarimng isn't a problem at the end of the honey production season in this location. It's a bit crowded at first but the bees cluster more tightly as the weather cools and the summer bees die off in the fall. This takes care of itself.
What is the purpose of having the queen excluder when the honey super isn't on top? Also I am just installing my package into a single brood chamber for their first year. What do I do with the honey in the top once september/october rolls around? I thought I was supposed to leave that for the bees but if I am supposed to take the honey super off for the winter what do I do with it. Should I just take it and feed sugar syrup the whole winter? Thanks for being so informative. You earned a new subscriber!
DON'T use an excluder if you are only using a SINGLE brood box. When NEARLY all the frames (8 or 10) are getting full then you can use a queen excluder and then place a honey super on top of it. Obviously the excluder stops the queen from entering the honey super and ensures that she stays in the brood box. During the winter you could actually leave the honey super in place (especially if it's the first year) as a good food supply for the young hive. There's no point in leaving a solitary brood box, then harvesting the honey for yourself and only feeding sugarwater to the bees. Maybe in the second season when the colony is strong you can add a second honey super and then when that is full of capped honey you could harvest all of it for yourself. The bees will still have the first honey super as a food source. Then during winter you may want to consider using, ADDITIONALLY, a top feeder with sugar water or use an inside cover/crown board and put some pollen cakes on it to ensure additional protein through the winter. Then place the top hive cover on all of them and keep them snug until springtime. Hope that helps.
Awesome info. I’m a newbee and am considering staying with one deep. Wasn’t sure if you have to leave the honey super on over winter to make sure they have enough food stores.
Hi Doug We winter the colonies as singles and feed in the early fall to make sure they have enough food to get them through to the next summer honey flow.
Leaving the deep super on top, they seem to make it through no problem in southern Oregon here. However this winter has been mild. I'm actually intrigued to hear that they make it through the winter with one brood box only. Do you just feed them some type of sugar mixture or pollen cakes or both?
Love all your videos. If you have 2 brood boxes can you take the brood frames from the top box and put them in the bottom box and move h the honey frames to the top and puy in a queen excluder?
The queen excluder works in this fashion. The slots are big enough for the workers to move though but the queen is too big to move though so it keeps her in the bottom of the hive which makes it easier to locate her if needed and it keeps her from laying eggs in the honey. Some use them some don’t. Ask five different beekeepers and you’re going to get six different answers 😁. I didn’t use them when my hives were brand new because I want all the bees drones to move freely but I will use them later this year
@@medic5836 Thanks your information, so you can easily expand more pure honey boxes while saving lot of havesting time, and easy to find the queen too. 😀👏
Question, single brood chamber i noticed is usually ran with 10 frame equipment. But what about 8 frame? Can you run 8 frame single brood chamber?? Or are you forced into double brood being 8 frame equipment.
Excellent question... I too face the same issue... I haven’t found the answer, but I suppose it may have to do with what is the maximum size the brood area can get using deep frames. Hopefully it’s under 8 .. I wonder if the type of honey bee also matters, eg., Italian vs Russian.
I’ve got a similar question, I’ve got 8-frame and they’re both the size of the honey super in this video. I think my first year since I’m an amateur I’m going to do the dual brood chamber, maybe experiment next year if things go well this year.
I am adding some packages of Carnolian bees. I would like to give them a oxalic vaporization treatment before the queen starts laying to treat for any varroa that traveled with them. Would you think 7-10 days after the package is placed in the box an adequate wait period? Assuming the queen is released in 3 days....
So. How do you stop swarming behavior in a single brood box? If you have the queen and brood in the bottom box, what stops them from swarming? Constantly pulling the cups with royal jelly? (Forgot what its called) don't they still run out of room from normal brood laying? I'm (obviously) inexperienced in beekeeping so just trying to figure out a bit before I try it out.
There’s another video I saw that explained that the queen can’t possibly lay more eggs than a single. By the time they get to frame 9, frame 1 is hatching. The queen uses the space much more efficiently, and the honey for the brood is shifted into the first super, rather than the frames 1,2, & 9,10
There's and FAQ in some of the older video comments. He list 3 websites. If you're in the US www.bigduckcanvas.com/number-8-18oz-cotton-duck-canvas.html
With the bees moving honey up and down in that first honey super and brood chamber, how do you know when it is time to add a second, and later a third honey super? If they are moving it a lot, do they still cap the honey when it is ripe?
Double brood really struggled to get going this year in UK. Single brood were ready to swarm by mid March. Hit the ground running. Double brood struggle to heat all those frames over winter.
Yowch! You can use deep frames for honey, but you shouldn't. No one would. You would never lift the boxes, or eventually hurt yourself trying, and even be unstable hovering with such a heavy box over your bees that you're trying to be so careful with. Honey is heavy. This is why Supers came about - Supers mean "Super Light". They are light weight and can be lifted easily. A deep full of honey will weigh about 70 lbs A medium super will weight about 50 lbs A small super will weigh about 30 lbs Also you have to consider that your bees might not be able to fill all 10 frames of a deep. Having to make decisions about 10 frames of half-filled honey comb (and they just might fill all of them half way down!) is not a result you want when the honey flow ends. You can't leave half-filled honey combs in the hive over winter; they aren't structurally sound and will likely crack and break open with the cooling and warming temperatures which will douse your bees, get them wet and they will die of hypothermia. If you take the half-filled combs out, you will rue what a waste of material is all that wax they've worked to build and never filled, when their efforts could have gone to other duties. Lastly; you don't want to put a half-filled frame of honey in an extractor. It will break up in the centrifuge so you would have to use another method such as pressing to get your honey out. One of the advantages of the Langstroth hive system is the reuse of comb back to the hive to spare your next year's bees of building comb, so you can expand your colonies faster and having comb is like gold in a hive. Having extra frames of drawn comb to plunk down where needed to encourage bees to expand or to build another hive is game changer in hive management. So, you can do it. But the system wasn't designed for it and it wouldn't give the optimal results or ease of use that the Langstroth system touts. Also some beeks don't use the mediums as honey frames for harvesting because of the 50 lbs. weight, but leave those as food for the bees and as a springtime expansion of the brood chamber. The bees will brood in their consumed honey stores in the spring build up then convert it back to honey at the draw down end of season. It's the least talked about box because it's often not used at all, or is managed as maintenance-free.
IM HAVING VERY HARD TIME BELIEVING QUEENS CANT MORE THAN ONE DEEP, Because I just made a video on my phone of 7 solid brood frames in the 3rd Deep ,(No Excluder,All Deep boxes,3 tall) Now IF there wasn't any Honey and Pollen taking up some room,MAYBE, BUT I had hives with 15 frames of Brood this year,so to me that blows theory Queens c ant lay more than one deep,outta the water, BECAUSE MORE BEES U HAVE ,THE MORE QUEENS CAN MAKE. HOWEVER,I am Running some singles this year,but I'm sure I'll have to steal brood away to keep em from swarming.Maybe I just have Exceptional Queens,but nine frames every frame is common, and sometimes more than 10 between two deeps.I love your videos, your a VERY good teacher, and I have watched a few very knowledgeable experience beekeepers claim this also, I just keep witnessing more than a single worth of brood, But whatever works, and I've learned some neat stuff from you ,who knows maybe I'll end up running all singles someday..
Hi BB Thanks for your thoughts. I understand your concerns about room for queens to lay. I haven't done the math but do repeat the theory about 1 brood chamber containing enough cells to keep a queen busy. Singles may not work for all strains of bees. About 70% of the hives in Ontario are managed this way so in our environment it works well. I was skeptical at first but wouldn't look back now. Cheers!
Hi George Thanks for your kind remark! Our pleasure. You could watch the video 'Our Equipment' where we show more about our bottom boards. We also have an article about bottom boards on our website under Resources for Beekeepers.
When using single brood management with new equipment and no drawn comb only plastic foundation would it be helpful when adding a supper to not use a queen excluder at first? After some comb has been made add a excluder while making sure the queen is below or is it not necessary to worry about?
Curious if you find that swarming is More prevalent in the single chambers ? Maybe I should spin that question and ask , do you find yourself splitting more often if it is managed before allowing it to swarm . Thanks for your time , sir .
Hi Daniel We work with Buckfast bees that are bred to have a low tendency to swarm. Bees that are prone to swarming are a bit harder to handle in singles. That said ~70 % of the hives in our province are managed as singles and they aren't all Buckfast. The biggest thing is giving them enough room at the right time.
UoG Honey Bee Research Centre thank you for the response . Last question . When split , do you put a queen excluder on the newest split hive on the bottom board for a few days ? Or is there a need for that if she is in the cage for a few days before released . And what kind of inner cover is that ? (Paper / material? ) thank you for this . Really enjoy these videos .
Hi Ryan That's a video we haven't posted yet... We super on time, keep relatively young queens in our hives and check on the very strong hives for swarm cells. See our video "swarm control' for more on the last point.
Every time I watch your videos I get jealous that small hive beetles are not a concern for you with your fabric inner covers. Man, I wish we could do that here in North Carolina. But every top bar would be covered in SHB. One of those "grass is always greener points." Thank you for all you do for all of us! Best, @HoneyOnWales
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre You'll likely never bet overrun by SHB with your winters effectively hitting the "reset button." Here in the South we have them actively reproducing year 'round, which makes it important for us to manage them vigilantly and never provide space that is accessible to SHB, but not bees. Thanks again for all you do for all of us!
My question is this, a super is to store just honey, the queen determines whether a colony swarms yes? Well if the queen is cramped excluded in the single brood chamber then surely the amount of supers makes no odds? As the main cluster in the brood box will still feel cramped? Can you possibly use a super below? Kinda allow a little extra expansion below without using a full brood box double? Any advice would be welcome, I've mainly used topbar hives so expansion is alot more straight forward. Or is a single brood box mostly always enough given supers are added?
Hi Richard With singles you take the same preventative measures for swarming as with doubles. The queen can't use more cells than that provided in one brood chamber.
we have a several hives and decided this year to run some single brood box hives. we set up five or six and added the queen excluder and the supper on when the time was rite ( based on our double boxs 80 to 90% drawn out ) and we have fought swarms urges in those boxs all spring. just pulled all the excluders last week and moving back to doubles. what would we have possably got wrong? we do manage our hives for swarm prevention and although not big time we do have fair number of hive and run brobably 40 or 50 deep 4 or 5 frame deep matings nucs for our grafting purposes. so i feel like we have miised something. love your videos.
@@Ggizered we dont have issues in the doubles just when we tried the single? i think ( short of missing somthng ) we manage swarming with no issues. like i say it was only a issue on the single brood box hives we tried this year. i watch some of Canadian beekeepers blogs but sadly i dont have time to go through everything he posts or any ones for that matter. but thanks?
Hi There Some strains of bees work better in doubles. It sounds like your's are that way. We breed for a low tendency to swarm and singes work fine with our bees. In our province, 60,000 hives of 100,000 are managed as singles. We super early and check on the strongest hives for swarm preparation. Se our video 'Swarm control ' for more info. We'll have a video out soon titled 'swarm prevention'. Thanks for letting us know you find our videos helpful.
Hello Again Paul, I’ve only done double brood chambers, and you are absolutely correct about the extra work & cost of them. I want to run singles this year, but how/when do you know when you can remove supers & basically start crowding them into a smaller volume? Don’t they tend to try & swarm? Are you able to remove all but 1 honey super for winter? I know this was 2019, but I’m trying to catch up on all your videos. Can I support you thru patreon? Thanks, 👋 Mike
Hi again Mike! Thanks for you encouragement. Yes we remove all the honey supers in the fall and winter in a single. The easiest time to switch over is in the late spring by splitting double brood chamber hive into two single brood chamber hives. If you don't want more hives remove the bottom brood chamber early in the spring when the bees are all in the top super. This can work in our climate - not sure about yours. Thanks for the offer of support. Our website has a donate tab and we are raising funds to build an new bee education centre. Any amount is appreciated! honeybee.uoguelph.ca/donate/
Thank You Paul, I followed your link, & read up on your proposed “Bee Search Centre”. It sounds very exciting, I wish I could give more to help, but I am retired now. I gave as much as I could right now. Good Luck on a very worthy project! 👋 Mike Campbell, Calif., USA
@@mikethebeeguy8657 Hi Mike I like your naming... the "Bee Search Centre". Thanks for your enthusiasm about our project and for your help. We are hoping for a few large donations and many small ones. They all count!
I really enjoy your very educational videos. Quick question: what was that piece of felt that you used as your hive lid just below the telescopic lid? I've never seen that before and was wondering if that is what your using to minimize small hive beetles?
Hi There It's a heavy weight canvas. Please see our FAQ #1. You can click on the FAQ link shown under any of our videos. We describe it a bit in our video 'Our Equipment". Thanks for your interest and generous feedback!
Great video Paul, thank you, i am a new beekeeper in northern BC, i built 3 hives but only have one with bees, started with a bee package in mid April, and they are doing very good with one deep for brood, excluder and so far 3 medium supers on it, I am a bit confused about the wintering process, do you remove the excluder and leave a full medium of cap honey or do you remove the excluder and only add bee candy on top of the frames and add a inner cover and a top cover. My hives are configured as followed, base stand, screen bottom boards, slatted boards, inner cover with 1 inch access and a quilt boards. Thank you
Hi Michel Sounds like you have a good start! You could watch our video "feeding and overwintering' to see how we prepare our hives for winter. Our methods are similar to most commercial beekeepers here.
Thank you for your videos. I am starting with bees this spring and wondering if one brood box will work in Collingwood. We're a bit colder than Guelph.
Hi Diane You are very welcome. Sure it will. It's common on the prairies and its even colder there. Good luck getting started. You also asked in an email about meeting local beekeepers. The best place is at a local beekeepers association. see www.ontariobee.com/community/local-beekeepers-associations
Hello, Great video as always. I'm already starting to think about winter preparations and so I'm wondering what is a good weight for a single brood chamber hive wintering outside. I also would like to know the answer to the same question but in regards to a double nuc colony
Thanks DH! If they feel like they are bolted to the ground it's heavy enough :) We don't weigh but do feed 4 gallons of 2/1 syrup to each hive after taking off the honey supers. They always have enough to get through the winter with this amount of feed. Ditto for double nucs.
UoG Honey Bee Research Centre About how many weeks do they need to store the 4 gallons this is my first year and I'm trying to figure out when to take the honey supers off?
Hi, I have a question (sorry it's a long one), what do you do when you queen fills the brood chamber with brood? I'm young beekeeper from Serbia. I started with single brood chamber, but when there is a good honey flow the queen fills 1st chamber with brood and I need to add a second chamber to make a space for queen to lay eggs. Then on the second chamber I add box for honey.
Pozdrav kolega, samo u kratkim crtama da ti pomognem jer smo u istom škripcu obojica, pritom početnici. Ono što si pitao ako sam dobro razumeo je- šta se desi kad matica nema više mesta za polaganje legla, jer su okviri prenatrpani nektarom i polenom. Desi se tzv. blokada matice, prirodna situacija, bez panike. Uglavom po nekoj logici trebao bi da izvadiš po 1 ram sa hranom i umesto njega dodaš satnu osnovu. Taj ram sa hranom daš nekom slabijem društvu ili ostavis negde gde imaš uslova, pa kasnije kad nije više problem leglo, oduzmeš prazan ram i daš im hrane. Tako će pčele brzo napraviti novo saće, matica će imati mesta da zaleže i sve bi trebalo da se normalizuje.
@@aleksandarperic89 Hvala na odgovoru kolega, kada matica dodje u blokadu, ja obično ili izvadim ram sa medom (to je obično krajnji ram, ili 2 krajnja) i dodam 1 izgradjenu satnu osnovu I jednu praznu, kako bi matica odmah krenula da zaleze, nekada izvadim ram, dva najzrelijeg legla i stavim u gornji nastavak iznad matične rešetke i tako oslobodim prostora, nego me je zanimalo da li postoji neki drugi način. Odakle si, koliko dugo pčelariš?
@@itsFilaaa Prva godina, dakle apsolutni početnik; okolina Vršca. Sviđa mi se ovaj sistem sa samo jednim nastavkom plodišta, za sad mi je svejedno jer svakako moram da štancujem ramove, ali radi selidbe, rada oko košnica, ovaj sistem mi je favorit. Pozdrav
hello ....thank you very much for the vieo, Just a question .....the little space for queen and the eggs laying is not a stimulus for swarming?.grreeting forma Chile!
Hi Carlos Greetings in Chile! We do other things to help prevent swarming and our bees are bred for a low tendency to swarm. This method is very common in our area.
This is perfect, thank you! My question is (and I didn't see this in the FAQs) - how do I convert a double deep to single deep brood chamber? I'm new this year so it might be a dumb question but I know I can use a queen excluder to isolate her to one chamber but then what? Once the brood hatches out I assume the bees will still keep using the comb to store honey and I do not want that! I could leave it on and then just remove it in the spring, I suppose, but I'd rather deal with it right away.
Hi, essentially you need to find the Queen and put her in the new bottom brood box, Queen excluder, and then top brood box if you have lots of frames and cannot fit them all in one box. This is a good time to remove dirty old comb (bailey frame method) . Put the dirty comb in the top brood box above the Queen excluder. Eventually all that brood will hatch out and Queen will not be able to lay in it again. Then remove. If there is a flow they may put honey in the old comb so what you do is get a second Queen excluder and put the old comb at the bottom where they will not put honey. Eventually it depleats and you can remove the frames to render the wax
Hi There Our pleasure. Thanks for checking the FAQ! Assuming you are in North America, I'd wait until next year and split the hive around the time bees would naturally swarm where you live. That's around mid May here. Have a look at our video 'splitting hives' and you'll see a method that fits your situation.
UoG Honey Bee Research Centre Our first frost is usually in late September. First snow is usually late October. Last frost is late May. How does that compare to your climate? I am considering going single box.
Your videos are awesome, thank you! I'm trying the single brood chamber management technique and loved it this summer ... so easy to do inspections ... lots of honey harvested. My problem came when I removed the supers this fall and left the hives with the single brood chamber only. A couple of my largest hives (4-5 honey supers) were so full, the bees couldn't all fit into the box and heavily bearded. Both of these hives then swarmed in mid-September, which I have never experienced before. I guess I could have pulled nucs, but I'd be concerned about rearing a queen that late and getting the nuc built up enough to make it through the winter (I'm in Utah). What would you recommend I try in the future?
Hi Mark Thanks... I think. :) Glad you saw some advantages of using singles. We don't have a problem with fall swarming after harvesting even though there often isn't enough space if the weather is warm. In our climate the weather gets colder after fall harvest and the summer bees die off so the crowding problem takes care of itself. Maybe you could harvest a bit later? Cheers!
I wonder if a solution to this could be to put on a box with empty foundation after removing the honey supers. This would give the crowded colony some extra room, while putting the bees to work drawing valuable comb while they are waiting for winter. Then you could take off this box a couple weeks later when the population starts to contract. Just a thought; I haven’t yet tried single chamber management, but I’m going to try it!
Thank you to everyone for watching and supporting our videos! If you have any questions about our videos, please check out our list of FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS on our website, which can be found at honeybee.uoguelph.ca/videos/frequently-asked-questions/
UoG Honey Bee Research Centre do you think this will work fine on an 8 frame too?
I am curious to learn what degree/education Paul has. He is one sharp dude concerning bees. One does not need a formal education to be 'educated' in many fields but I am curious what degree might lend itself most helpful in the study and management of bees.
What is the cloth you use as the inner cover?
Sorry not found
I'm so in love with my bees! They're wild so swarmed only to return again with new queen, this time finding the Langstroth box instead of the siding of my house! Couldn't be more in love than watching them in all of the natural ways they deliver life to the world! Not planning on taking their honey as they are wild and will need to weather through lean times but such a privilege to be chosen in their lives. Awww!! Makes my heart soar!!
I do not know how anyone can give any video u do a thumb down, your videos are wonderful and they teach us a lot it is like going to bee school and I hope u will always do them Thanks Paul and have a wonderful day
:) :) :)
It is a touch screen issue i guess, some people have large fingers and when they want to touch on "thumbs up" they may touch "thumbs down" and may not aware of that.
I'd have to agree with you Frances. But, there are those beekeepers that only do it one way, and it's their way only. These are likely the thumbs down people. These are also the people to avoid asking advice.
@@beebob1279 "If you ask 10 beekeepers a question, you'll get 11 different answers".
@@weirjwerijrweurhuewhr588 Yep. But I like beekeepers with open minds to different management methods.
Of all the channels I've followed you are one of the best teachers ever. I never get to the end confused...only wanting to know more. Thank you. 💜
Thanks Nunya. You are very kind!
New Beekeeper. I got my Nuc last year. Pored over every video from you guys and stayed with a single brood chamber. Here in the very wet lower mainland of BC, what kills bees is moisture (and varroa too, of course). We had a very cold (by our standards) winter but it was also extremely wet. I prepped my bees with a quilt box, integrated with a feeder to help them over the winter.
It’s now early March, nighttime temps are zero C and sometimes sub zero. I’ve opened the hive and without taking out frames (cos the warmest is still only 10 degrees) I can see that I’ve got a full 10-frames of bees looking up at me! The single survived!
they were looking up at you and probably saying "close the damn door dude its freezing in here !"
I successfully wintered a single brood box in Northwestern Wisconsin this year. I don’t think our climate here is too far off from yours. I plan on splitting two of my doubles this year. Thx for all your excellent videos!
Hi Again Primitive Daisy
Thanks for your progress report. Great to hear singles are working out for you in Northern Wisconsin!
This guy packs a lot of info in one video. Awesome! Thank you
Happy to help!
Yes, the video is very short and condensed, I get the feeling there is much more to say.
This is the best way for new keepers to start. Thank you for sharing.
Agreed Valerie! You a very welcome.
A great video with excellent explanation of the process. Years ago I "kept" bees as a hobby. It was a learning experience and a lot of fun.
We are just putting our program together in Western WI and will be going single brood chambers. Thanks for the great video!
I’m in NW Wisconsin. May I ask what program you are referring to? I have converted all but one of my hives to single brood chamber.
@@primitivedaisy Single brood chamber management. One box for the queen, the rest for splits or honey. Similar management as to how UoG is doing it.
Thank you for the awesome way of explaining the differences between the single and double. I’ve been struggling with deciding what way to go. I wanted to stick with single, but was concerned about preventing swarming. Although I’m sure a double will swarm just as easily if they want to. Thank you again!!!
In youtube, search for "Devan & Single Brood Chamber" He explains the numbers. In short, 1 box is WAY WAY more than enough for the queen. (he's also a Canadian, great videos!)
Excellent Mr Paul!!!... I am a beekeeper from Greece and I work with Langstroth and Dadant hives... Both of them single not double... Of course I m inspecting them every 4 days for 2 months for queen cells and I destroy them to prevent swarming but when swarming period pass away I have powerful bee colonies and they fill the supers with honey in 3 days!!!! The benefits of the singles!!!!!
Finally someone that I can relate too. Used single brood boxes for all my hives and by only using half boxes for storing honey never had to feed any artificial food. Okay had too leave a good bit of honey on to carry them over the lean times but when things started to happen they were well prepared. Thanks and have subscribed.
Thanks Bob. Singles rule! :)
Great explanation!
I live in a warm climate and everyone I know uses single brood boxes with two or more supers and it works great. It's really interesting to see how other countries set up their bee boxes.
Thanks for this informative vid.
Nice to hear directly from the BBC. It is interesting to see how beekeepers around the world accomplish their goals in different ways. We seem to be slow to use singles here in North America! Thanks for your thoughts.
Thanks to all who answered my question! Really appreciate it!
Another great video Paul. I knew this one was forthcoming and was looking forward to it. I converted to the single super brood chamber a couple years ago. As you indicated, it would be best to try a couple hives at first. Once again, thanks to you and everyone at the UoG for sharing your great work and knowledge.
Thanks Kirk!. It did take awhile but thanks to your nudging we got it done. Nice to hear you are a covert. Our team says you are most welcome!
I tried a single brood chamber strategy last year with my 5 hives and couldn't have been happier, seeing 9 or so frames of brood in the bottom deep was exciting and easy to manage as you described. The winter of 2018 I had 5 single brood chamber hives all make it through this winter into 2019, treated with oxalic acid dribble in the fall which was very effective after I fed them up to weight and they went broodless.
Ok Everyone. There's your testimonial! Thanks Canadian Tropicana.
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre hello sir did you hear of ABU salman systeme if so what do you think about it if not please give it a try and tell us the results i m waiting for it thnx for this golden content and advices
I'm trying it too but my strategy is similar. It starts at the splits. I use queen castles and head off swarms. I end up with 3 frame nucs that I expand to 4 over 4 deep frames. Some years I super the 4 over 4's in duplexes. If they survive winter the 8 goes into a 10 frame deep. Add two frames, excluder, and supers. Let er rip. After the spring summer flow I sacrifice a super and winter as a deep with a medium on top. If it still survives winter again I put queen in the deep and the super goes above an excluder. It works great. It's basically a three year program. Every year I'm starting nucs that hopefully are next year's honey makers. This plan works for me in central Illinois. Never buy bees
@@mikeries8549 sounds like a good strategy to me, everyone has something unique that works for them, I'm glad you found yours. And yes, it's nice not having to buy bees.
In the balkans Dadant hives are still used so a lot of beekeepers are using this method. Thank you.
Great video. Thank you. Years ago when I started keeping bees I went for the double brood chamber. Within a year I got fed up with needing help lifting that top chamber. Now I run all horizontal Langstroth hives and mix in some top-bars.
Yes, I need help initially setting out the hives but after that, no more heavy lifting.
Hi Patrick
Sounds like you've figure out some good ways to avoid lifting that 2'nd brood chamber. I'm not familiar with horizontal Langstroth use but one of my U of G profs, Gord Townsend, developed the top bar hive for use in east Africa.
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre affectionately called the Kenyan Top-bar Hive? Did his have straight or angled sides?
angled sides
@Westernwilson yep. There's no law that says you have to lift a deep full of honey.
Great to have the single brood box explained so well with the tips to help get it to work for me will give it a go thanks.
You are welcome Den. It's easier than you might think.
I overwintered my hives single in eastern Ontario with great success. This is an amazing practice!
Agreed :) Eastern Ontario is where this practice has been traditional for a very long time. You are in the heartland!
I didn’t know that! Very cool :)
Great video on a management method that is a hard to find on the internet...greatly appreciated. I already had plans to modify to single brood boxes. I'm in SE Michigan, so nearly the same weather as Ontario. I'm planning on moving all the brood frames, pollen, and queen to the bottom box with the excluder about 3 weeks into May. My thought on the timing is to permit the build-up for the spring without the excluder. The reverse thought as well...so in the fall not to have an excluder on so that the queen can move around and not get froze out (besides I can imaging metal inside a hive in the winter would get really cold like the outside of a car...or much like a heat sink). My main motivation for the single brood chamber is to reduce time spent inspecting, and just be move efficient. Lifting a box to inspect from the bottom just makes more sense instead of pulling out every frame. So what do you think of the the timing for consolidating to single brood chambers & placing excluders at approximately 3 weeks into May (SE Michigan)?
Hi BOH
I like you handle name!
If you are wintering in doubles maybe you'd consider letting them build up to filling most of the two boxes and them splitting them into two. See our 'Splitting Beehives' video. If so make sure both boxes have lots of brood. Queen excluders are a beekeepers best friend despite what you might here. They keep things simple and simple often leads to success. It's not however a good idea to leave them on in the winter. Your plan sounds good but I think I lost your thought in late summer. I like to think brood comb is brood comb and honey comb is honey comb.
Here in Aus nearly everyone use Langstroth frames. The commercial guys tend to use 10 frame boxes as have lifting devices where as us mear mortals use 8 frame.
Due to our climate etc nearly everyone uses 1 brood box and 1 super over winter. Leave the equivalent of about 4 frames honey to feed if no winter flora.
The 8 frame brood boxes seem to be big enough but have moved a couple frames brood or honey above the QX if think need more room. Swarming still happens if she wants to.
Sometimes we find her Majesty at home above the QX. Not quite sure how this happens but just reverse the boxes and put her home on the bottom.
It maybe a climate thing but inner covers not really popular: especially when use SHB traps on top of the frames. Burr comb ot the top of the frames and in the top cover is great if forget to extract in time .
Ventilated bottom boards not as common as I think they could be but our top covers are ventilated to get a bit of air flow. Amazes me when see hives set up unprotected in scorching temps of the middle of summer - even though they keep the hive at similar temps and have massive veils on the outside of the box
Yes I am single brood box all the way. I am not sure if you mentioned it but I like that I need less formic acid to treat a single box then I do a double box. The queen excluder is an extra expense and very necessary but I think it is well worth it. I have had great luck getting them to work above the excluder by lifting honey frames up from the brood chamber all covered in bees but with no cells or queens to be sure
Hey Tom
A long lost relative?? That is another advantage for sure.
I use single hive management. I am from Saskatchewan north of Saskatoon. Only have 2 -10 frame hives I got last June and 2 late season 6 frame nucs from that. I indoor wintered in a tiny shed kept at + 4 from october 31, 2018 Took the hives out of the shed last Tuesday, March 19, 2019. I gave them a couple days for cleansing flights. Friday March 22, 2019 . I did a quick partial inspection to check for stores and for any sign of brood also scraped the bottom boards. A bit early and a bit cool at only +10 C high but there is discussion as to whether bees brood in the winter shed. I wanted to either confirm or dispel the idea. I tipped them, counted frames of bees from below. Scraped the bottom boards. Re placed the brood chamber on to the bottom board then started from the top side and quickly went through from 1 side counting stores until i reached brood. In each hive I found larva ready to be capped and capped brood on the first frame of brood I came across confirming brooding happens in the shed. I didn't go in any farther. I quickly reassembled the hive. Threw a pound pollen patty on top of the 10 frames and 1/2lb on the Nucs and closed them up.
Conclusion: 100% survival and 4 laying queens. Honey bees do brood in the winter shed since late stage larva and capped brood can't take place in 3 1/2 days. The largest 10 frame had 7 full frames of bees and still had 3 1/2 frames of honey on the one side, as stated I didn't go right through the hive. I still had pollen stores in the frames but the 2 lbs of patties I had put in that hive immediately before I put them in the shed was entirely gone. As it's still early and weather is volatile, Besides the pollen patties I also put about 2 gallons of 2-1 open feed sugar water and about a pound of dry pollen to give them something to do but they have lots of stores in the hive if weather prevents that.
If it works in Saskatchewan it can work anywhere! Thanks RAW.
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre My wife wants to do honey now but the only reason I got the bees was to help the species. I'm not disciplined enough to be a scientist but I'm adventurous enough to try different things and observant enough to tell if it made a difference. I've watched 100s of videos many times. So while I understand how to do it I have less than a year of actual experience. The only thing I can say is what i'm doing and observations. As far as teaching goes I leave that to the pros like you folks. Of all the videos I watched there are 5 pages I recommend to newbies or folks having problems yours is one of them.
My apiary coach recommended to me to watch. So I am watching. DR
Good to hear we come recommended! Thanks Dan. Good luck with your bees.
In Texas i use double brood boxes because they are active alot of the winter and need alot of stores because of it. I've lost two hives that were doubles due to lack of food already in March. They don't really cluster here so stores is important. At least in my view. In spring you have to rotate the boxes so they move up into the now empty frames but once you're used to having two brood boxes it gets easier to deal with inspections.
Hi GLH
Hi in Texas.I know everything is bigger there. Maybe that's why you like doubles! :)
Different conditions may make singles tougher to manage.
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre im the experimenting type. May try a single and see how it does. Do you find that the queen excluders inhibit them building comb above them? Or do you let other hives draw the supers comb out?
Hi Again
We usually mix some drawn comb together with the new foundation. You could see our video on 'drawing comb'. As long as we have a good flow on the bees come up through an excluder quickly.
Still a very good tutorial video on single brood box management. Thanks Paul
I love your method of explanation and visual support.
Very kind of you to say so Steven. Thanks!
Very simple analysis of brood management.
Thanks Colin
Simple is usually a good thing...
In Chile, where i come from, almost everybody uses single brood chambers, and usually with no excluder. Only once have i found a queen laying on the super, and i realized it was because i put a frame with polen in the super ( i was just starting out with beekeing). I have been thinking of making my own 12 or 14 frame brood chamber, (with normal honey super on top) because i have found queens laying on the external frames on the chamber, where there usually is honey. Maybe a design with removable inner walls to extend the chamber when needed.
Hi Marco
That's interesting that so many beekeepers use singles in Chile. Without excluders your timing has to be perfect on supering and you need a strong, predictable, early nectar flow to keep the queen from moving up.
My preference is to experiment with hive management techniques using standard equipment. There are many advantages to standardization.
I understand, of course, in a big apiary it would not be practical to use non standard equipment. I only have 6 hives, mainly for learning and experimenting purposes. About 15 years ago i started with 500 hives and it was a big mistake, beeing an unexperienced beekeper (wich i still am). I am starting again, no rush this time. I have had these collonies for four years now, in a secluded location, aiming for minimal or hopefully no treatment. For the past two years i have had no losses and have been able to grow a little, but this process takes a long time and knowledge, i think i will have to add another 10+ years of studying and practicing :) Your videos are of greatest value, thank you!
Good video. Very simplified explenations to what he is doing.
Thanks Austin
The part that I'm having trouble finding answers to is how exactly you get a single brood chamber hive through the winter. Is there sufficient honey in a single deep to last a long winter? Do you need to feed them during the winter? If so, what do you feed them, when, and how much and how often?
This is my question as well.
@@shannjill grow Zone 4a I bust them down to a single in September and feed until they stop taking it. I
On a balmy 32f + day after Christmas I throw a couple winter patties on top the cluster. I used to do candy boards but breaking them down in the Spring was a pain.
Rstlr So too late to go to single at this point? I’m in central Indiana. My bottom box is basically empty. What exactly is a winter party?
@@shannjill look up ap23 winter patties from dadant. Why do you still have a bottom box if it is "empty"?
@@shannjill If I would be going through and making sure that every frame that had resources was in the same Box. If the Box is truly empty there's no reason for it to be Part of the hive.
Do you leave a super of honey for them over the winter....?
Uncertain about the single brood chamber...not enough space in there for winter honey, right? Or wrong?
Appreciate your advice?
Great topic, I watch and subscribe to your channel. Your approach to bee keeping is awesome because Jamaica and Canada have similar approach to beekeeping. I am trained beekeeper with over twenty years of experience, I am living in the u s originally from Jamaica where I had my small apiary. I used single brood that worked well for me, My first from four colony of bee 3 medium 1 shallow super harvested half drum of honey. So I have experience working with single brood. When I get a place to setup an apiary I will. Good job guys.
Thanks Marvin
Good luck with getting started again with bees in the US.
This is my 3rd year with bees. I quickly learned how hard double hives are to manage, heavy. I only have 2 hives but I've decided to do single chamber on the quiet because where I am they push double chamber. To my relief I found out a gentleman that helped me get started is also doing his hives single chamber this year on the quiet too. We only know because my husband saw his hives. He has much more experience than I do and it encourages me to know he and I came to the same conclusion.
I have a lot to learn and your videos are much appreciated and needed. Thank you.
Come out of the singles closet Barbara! Be proud to be different:) I understand what you are saying though. I was a skeptic initially too. Here in Ontario singles are the favoured way to keep bees. Good luck!
Great video!! I run my honey farm on single brood too!!
Much easier to inspect and manage.
No difference in honey crop compared to brood and a half or double brood.
Found with double brood they store to much honey in the top brood!
Great work 👍🏻👍🏻
Hi Gwenyn
Good to hear you've had success this way too! Thanks for your support.
I think this next season i'm going to move half of my colonies over to singles to try out. Great info Paul.
Go for it! We also did another video on managing singles. It is called Singles part 2 I think.
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre I'll watch it after work today. Thanks again for all of the information that you share.
Thanks Paul for sharing the single vs double perspective. I think the reasoning for so many starting with doubles is based on the literature available on the internet that is pro double boxes. I watched Devon Rawns video on singles and the reasoning is very clear. Many new Canadian beekeepers read that they need 80-90 lbs of reserves going into winter. The only way they see that happening is to have 2 brood boxes whereby the top box is where the reserves will come from for going into winter. Most hobbyists can afford to feed syrup in the fall to achieve the required reserves for winter. The simpleness of singles makes it worthwhile. This I have learned the hard way. Great series from U of G.
Indeed! Actually getting a single to have 80+lbs isn't really difficult, you just need a strong packed hive come fall to take and cure the syrup.
Thanks Bob and CT
It works. What more can we the converted say! Nice to hear you find our videos helpful.
Ah, the video we talked about last year. Thanks Paul.
Right! Thanks for nudging us along. You are very welcome.
I fully agree. I have swapped to Zadant size instead of Zander or Dadant.
Excellent video. I want to start single brood management. This is my first year and I don't have drawn comb only what bees have drawn so far. I am feeding to help with comb building. I know if I super a hive for honey production I need to take the feed off. How do I get started without drawn comb and not feeding?
Hi Kenneth
Glad you found this video helpful. I'd suggest you watch our video titled 'Comb Building' for some tips.
2 questions,
#1- what’s the diff between a super and a honey super? you mentioned both.
#2- with a single brood hive, you take even the first honey super off during winter even though they don’t store much food in the brood chamber? Does that mean you have to feed all winter?
1. no difference - we often use super and honey super interchangeably.
2. We feed as soon as the last super is taken off. We feed enough that the bees store all the food they'll need for the winter in the brood chamber. You could see our video 'Feeding bees and Overwintering'.
great video. Im in Texas ...overwintering singles in winter what would the configuration be brood/pollen/nectar/honey and empty frames. --thanks
That’s exactly what I do here in NC. One deep and then supers. But I do not operate with an excluder. Never! Good video Mr. UofG.
Then your supers aren't supers there just medium brood Chambers.
Hi Dadu63 and Josh
In our conditions queens move up without excluders.
Thanks for your thoughts and support!
I have an 8 frame hive that I’ve single brood chambered every year (including overwinter), and I’ve never had a problem. I live in the North West of Toronto.
We are thinking of going to a single brood box. What do you do to ensure they have enough food to survive the winter?
I love this dude, where has he been?
Busy with the bees! :) Cheers.
I am in Southeast Texas and was shocked recently to find 8 out of 10 frames in my super already full of capped honey. The bees worked faster than me. I found myself running here and there to get extra supplies for more suppers and another hive I captured from a swarm. I also like the concept of single brood, mainly because it takes less time inspecting...
Liked-Subscribed-Notified.. You are braver than I am- I never tend bees without a veil and jacket on.
Thanks! Excellent, clear explanations!
You are very welcome Vera!
Excellent video! Informative and very professional. Thank you.
You are welcome John. Thanks for taking the time to add a nice comment.
Thanks for the info. This is exactly what I am wanting to try. I am new to bee keeping. Still trying to catch my first swarm.
You are welcome Doug. A 12 year old ( SidthebeeKid) wrote today to say he had caught three swarms this week!!! He was super pumped about getting into bees. I don't see enough swarms around here for that to be a good option of getting a start. All the best in your beekeeping career Doug.
Try swarm commander. I've 100 percent success with all of my swarm traps using it.
Do you leave the first super on for the winter so the bees have something, if they are not storing much in the brood chamber? And do you leave the excluder on all winter? If not what's to keep the queen from moving up so that she starts laying in the super? If it's really cold can they break cluster and go up and get it? I've had long cold spells where I'm at and it looks like they starved because they didn't move. Lots of stores left but empty around the dead cluster.
Hi Buckwheat
We remove all supers and the excluder in the fall after the last nectar flow. We then feed the hives sugar syrup.
One more comment...I noticed your hive boxes all have holes in the center near the top...this spring I'm drilling 3/4" holes in all of my boxes, and then using #8 tapered cork to close up (fit perfect, and not hard to remove), or just leave out to keep open...depends on the temperature...I really think this is a great way for the hive to fly in/out to arrive where they want to go inside faster, as well as for ventilation.
Hi there
We drill the holes in our brood chambers but not our honey supers. This works in our climate. Cheers!
Hello, beautifully rendered videos - keep it up, a Scottish beekeeper here: I've noticed the US and Canadian beekeeping videos on TH-cam are always discussing this issue of rearing brood in a single brood box rather than double. I don't understand why this is such a big topic of interest. Can the community give me a bit of background to this? In Scotland a double brood is generally the innovative practice as Queen cells in this configuration are normally built at the bottom of frames in the top brood box. So in swarm season you can just tilt the top box up to check for swarm cells and generally if time is of essence you have quickly done an inspection. Also heat from the brood in the bottom box helps to build comb in top box / keep upper brood warm. There is an issue in a flow of bees piling honey in the top brood box and there is no room for her majesty to lay but otherwise seems a warmer set up.
Hi there in Scotland!
Double brood chambers were the standard here but most of us switched to singles for a number of reasons. Many of them are mentioned in the video. It's still a topic of interest here as those that keep bees in singles realize the benefits but have a hard time convincing other beekeepers. I too was skeptical but I won't look back.
I will be moving to single brood chambers this year. That as well as wintering them inside a somewhat climate controlled shed during the winter months.
Good Luck Giles. That sounds like a good plan. We have a video coming up soon about wintering bees indoors.
As your colony grows in number with a single brood chamber and you add supers on. How do you reduce the large number of bees back down to the brood chamber when the supers are removed for winter and get them to fit without swarming?
Swarimng isn't a problem at the end of the honey production season in this location. It's a bit crowded at first but the bees cluster more tightly as the weather cools and the summer bees die off in the fall. This takes care of itself.
What is the purpose of having the queen excluder when the honey super isn't on top? Also I am just installing my package into a single brood chamber for their first year. What do I do with the honey in the top once september/october rolls around? I thought I was supposed to leave that for the bees but if I am supposed to take the honey super off for the winter what do I do with it. Should I just take it and feed sugar syrup the whole winter? Thanks for being so informative. You earned a new subscriber!
DON'T use an excluder if you are only using a SINGLE brood box. When NEARLY all the frames (8 or 10) are getting full then you can use a queen excluder and then place a honey super on top of it. Obviously the excluder stops the queen from entering the honey super and ensures that she stays in the brood box.
During the winter you could actually leave the honey super in place (especially if it's the first year) as a good food supply for the young hive. There's no point in leaving a solitary brood box, then harvesting the honey for yourself and only feeding sugarwater to the bees.
Maybe in the second season when the colony is strong you can add a second honey super and then when that is full of capped honey you could harvest all of it for yourself. The bees will still have the first honey super as a food source. Then during winter you may want to consider using, ADDITIONALLY, a top feeder with sugar water or use an inside cover/crown board and put some pollen cakes on it to ensure additional protein through the winter. Then place the top hive cover on all of them and keep them snug until springtime.
Hope that helps.
Awesome info. I’m a newbee and am considering staying with one deep. Wasn’t sure if you have to leave the honey super on over winter to make sure they have enough food stores.
Hi Doug
We winter the colonies as singles and feed in the early fall to make sure they have enough food to get them through to the next summer honey flow.
Leaving the deep super on top, they seem to make it through no problem in southern Oregon here. However this winter has been mild. I'm actually intrigued to hear that they make it through the winter with one brood box only. Do you just feed them some type of sugar mixture or pollen cakes or both?
Love all your videos. If you have 2 brood boxes can you take the brood frames from the top box and put them in the bottom box and move h the honey frames to the top and puy in a queen excluder?
Thanks Kurt. You could do that if you want to switch to singles. Making sure of course to put the queen below the excluder.
How many supers should the hive go into winter with and should they be shallows or mediums?
Hi, what material do you use as you inner cover? And is it better than the wood? Thanks for a great video
Hi Duane
Thanks. Please see FAQ 4.2 on the following link. honeybee.uoguelph.ca/videos/frequently-asked-questions/
Sir, what is the queen excluder and how it work between the brood box and the super box?
Thanks in advance...🙏
The queen excluder works in this fashion. The slots are big enough for the workers to move though but the queen is too big to move though so it keeps her in the bottom of the hive which makes it easier to locate her if needed and it keeps her from laying eggs in the honey. Some use them some don’t. Ask five different beekeepers and you’re going to get six different answers 😁. I didn’t use them when my hives were brand new because I want all the bees drones to move freely but I will use them later this year
@@medic5836
Thanks your information, so you can easily expand more pure honey boxes while saving lot of havesting time, and easy to find the queen too. 😀👏
Question, single brood chamber i noticed is usually ran with 10 frame equipment. But what about 8 frame? Can you run 8 frame single brood chamber?? Or are you forced into double brood being 8 frame equipment.
Ian Steppler, another popular TH-cam beekeeper from Canada, keeps single brood in 6 frame nucs overwintered (indoors).
Just overwintered some 4 frame boxs in SE Michigan with that polar vortex 😲
Excellent question... I too face the same issue... I haven’t found the answer, but I suppose it may have to do with what is the maximum size the brood area can get using deep frames. Hopefully it’s under 8 .. I wonder if the type of honey bee also matters, eg., Italian vs Russian.
I’ve got a similar question, I’ve got 8-frame and they’re both the size of the honey super in this video. I think my first year since I’m an amateur I’m going to do the dual brood chamber, maybe experiment next year if things go well this year.
Hi Eagle
One of our volunteers has wintered 8 frame singles here with success. They are little more fragile than 10 framers.
I am adding some packages of Carnolian bees. I would like to give them a oxalic vaporization treatment before the queen starts laying to treat for any varroa that traveled with them. Would you think 7-10 days after the package is placed in the box an adequate wait period? Assuming the queen is released in 3 days....
So. How do you stop swarming behavior in a single brood box? If you have the queen and brood in the bottom box, what stops them from swarming? Constantly pulling the cups with royal jelly? (Forgot what its called) don't they still run out of room from normal brood laying?
I'm (obviously) inexperienced in beekeeping so just trying to figure out a bit before I try it out.
Hi Chris
Viewing our videos on 'Swarm Control' and 'Splitting Hives' will help you understand how we deal with swarming. Good luck!
Isn't one major advantage of having two brood chambers is giving the queen more room to lay eggs and therefore a stronger colony ?
There’s another video I saw that explained that the queen can’t possibly lay more eggs than a single. By the time they get to frame 9, frame 1 is hatching. The queen uses the space much more efficiently, and the honey for the brood is shifted into the first super, rather than the frames 1,2, & 9,10
@@joshuahazzard yeah I've seen something like that the math works out one is enough
@@joshuahazzard can you post the link to that video?
What are your inner covers made from and where do you get them? Thank you!
I've been told they use #8 "duck" canvas
The #8 canvas or guys use a shiny foil bubble wrap often used to insulate hot water heaters.
There's and FAQ in some of the older video comments. He list 3 websites.
If you're in the US
www.bigduckcanvas.com/number-8-18oz-cotton-duck-canvas.html
th-cam.com/video/mtfzz__v8KU/w-d-xo.html
Hi Arlisa
I think you have some good answers already. Thanks William. I hadn't noted that our FAQ isn't on our newer videos. We'll change that.
With the bees moving honey up and down in that first honey super and brood chamber, how do you know when it is time to add a second, and later a third honey super? If they are moving it a lot, do they still cap the honey when it is ripe?
Good video. So do you leave one full honey super on per deep brood chamber in the winter?
Double brood really struggled to get going this year in UK. Single brood were ready to swarm by mid March. Hit the ground running. Double brood struggle to heat all those frames over winter.
Nice to hear that singles work across the pond too. Say Hi to my long lost relatives!
what line of bees are you raising. you never have any protection so they must be super gentle.
Good question, I’m still waiting on answers.
Can you use deep frames and deep boxes as honey supers? Or only medium frames and medium boxes? Thanks, I'm new to this!
Yowch! You can use deep frames for honey, but you shouldn't. No one would. You would never lift the boxes, or eventually hurt yourself trying, and even be unstable hovering with such a heavy box over your bees that you're trying to be so careful with. Honey is heavy. This is why Supers came about - Supers mean "Super Light". They are light weight and can be lifted easily.
A deep full of honey will weigh about 70 lbs
A medium super will weight about 50 lbs
A small super will weigh about 30 lbs
Also you have to consider that your bees might not be able to fill all 10 frames of a deep. Having to make decisions about 10 frames of half-filled honey comb (and they just might fill all of them half way down!) is not a result you want when the honey flow ends. You can't leave half-filled honey combs in the hive over winter; they aren't structurally sound and will likely crack and break open with the cooling and warming temperatures which will douse your bees, get them wet and they will die of hypothermia.
If you take the half-filled combs out, you will rue what a waste of material is all that wax they've worked to build and never filled, when their efforts could have gone to other duties.
Lastly; you don't want to put a half-filled frame of honey in an extractor. It will break up in the centrifuge so you would have to use another method such as pressing to get your honey out.
One of the advantages of the Langstroth hive system is the reuse of comb back to the hive to spare your next year's bees of building comb, so you can expand your colonies faster and having comb is like gold in a hive. Having extra frames of drawn comb to plunk down where needed to encourage bees to expand or to build another hive is game changer in hive management.
So, you can do it. But the system wasn't designed for it and it wouldn't give the optimal results or ease of use that the Langstroth system touts.
Also some beeks don't use the mediums as honey frames for harvesting because of the 50 lbs. weight, but leave those as food for the bees and as a springtime expansion of the brood chamber. The bees will brood in their consumed honey stores in the spring build up then convert it back to honey at the draw down end of season. It's the least talked about box because it's often not used at all, or is managed as maintenance-free.
I don’t remember typing this I don’t even like bees my dad typed this
@@Vee_TheToon :D
IM HAVING VERY HARD TIME BELIEVING QUEENS CANT MORE THAN ONE DEEP, Because I just made a video on my phone of 7 solid brood frames in the 3rd Deep ,(No Excluder,All Deep boxes,3 tall) Now IF there wasn't any Honey and Pollen taking up some room,MAYBE, BUT I had hives with 15 frames of Brood this year,so to me that blows theory Queens c ant lay more than one deep,outta the water, BECAUSE MORE BEES U HAVE ,THE MORE QUEENS CAN MAKE. HOWEVER,I am Running some singles this year,but I'm sure I'll have to steal brood away to keep em from swarming.Maybe I just have Exceptional Queens,but nine frames every frame is common, and sometimes more than 10 between two deeps.I love your videos, your a VERY good teacher, and I have watched a few very knowledgeable experience beekeepers claim this also, I just keep witnessing more than a single worth of brood, But whatever works, and I've learned some neat stuff from you ,who knows maybe I'll end up running all singles someday..
Hi BB
Thanks for your thoughts. I understand your concerns about room for queens to lay. I haven't done the math but do repeat the theory about 1 brood chamber containing enough cells to keep a queen busy.
Singles may not work for all strains of bees. About 70% of the hives in Ontario are managed this way so in our environment it works well. I was skeptical at first but wouldn't look back now. Cheers!
Excellent videos! Thank you so much. Can you tell us more about those bottom boards? Nothing on FAQ page.
Hi George
Thanks for your kind remark! Our pleasure.
You could watch the video 'Our Equipment' where we show more about our bottom boards. We also have an article about bottom boards on our website under Resources for Beekeepers.
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre thank you!
This might have been asked already but would this work with medium hive boxes through the winter? I’m located in Muskoka.
It's barely possible in our location. I doubt it would work for you unless you really insulate them well.
Does it matter if you use an 8 frame deep or must you use a 10 frame deep for single brood box hives?
8 Frames do well here overwinter. I prefer 10 though.
Cash this be done with 8 frame equipment? If so, is there anything different that needs to be done?
I think so. This question has been asked and I've heard back that it worked well. Keep an eye on food reserves.
When using single brood management with new equipment and no drawn comb only plastic foundation would it be helpful when adding a supper to not use a queen excluder at first? After some comb has been made add a excluder while making sure the queen is below or is it not necessary to worry about?
Hi Doug
Please watch our video "Comb Building"
Do they store some pollen in that first super? If they do isn't that a problem because they would need it to raise brood in the spring?
Hi Calvin
There is almost no pollen stored above the queen excluder.
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre
That is very good to know, thank you so much!
Curious if you find that swarming is
More prevalent in the single chambers ? Maybe I should spin that question and ask , do you find yourself splitting more often if it is managed before allowing it to swarm .
Thanks for your time , sir .
Hi Daniel
We work with Buckfast bees that are bred to have a low tendency to swarm. Bees that are prone to swarming are a bit harder to handle in singles. That said ~70 % of the hives in our province are managed as singles and they aren't all Buckfast. The biggest thing is giving them enough room at the right time.
UoG Honey Bee Research Centre thank you for the response . Last question . When split , do you put a queen excluder on the newest split hive on the bottom board for a few days ? Or is there a need for that if she is in the cage for a few days before released . And what kind of inner cover is that ? (Paper / material? ) thank you for this . Really enjoy these videos .
How do you prevent swarming in single brood chambers? Just by adding supers or do you also need to pull frames now and then to give the queen room?
Hi Ryan
That's a video we haven't posted yet...
We super on time, keep relatively young queens in our hives and check on the very strong hives for swarm cells. See our video "swarm control' for more on the last point.
Never would have thought you were in Ontario too! You got me obsessed with bees lmfao.
Every time I watch your videos I get jealous that small hive beetles are not a concern for you with your fabric inner covers. Man, I wish we could do that here in North Carolina. But every top bar would be covered in SHB. One of those "grass is always greener points." Thank you for all you do for all of us! Best, @HoneyOnWales
Hi Drew
We are lucky... so far. They ay in the province but not in our hives yet. I'll wait to see how it works out with our inner covers. Cheers!
@@UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre You'll likely never bet overrun by SHB with your winters effectively hitting the "reset button." Here in the South we have them actively reproducing year 'round, which makes it important for us to manage them vigilantly and never provide space that is accessible to SHB, but not bees. Thanks again for all you do for all of us!
My question is this, a super is to store just honey, the queen determines whether a colony swarms yes? Well if the queen is cramped excluded in the single brood chamber then surely the amount of supers makes no odds? As the main cluster in the brood box will still feel cramped? Can you possibly use a super below? Kinda allow a little extra expansion below without using a full brood box double? Any advice would be welcome, I've mainly used topbar hives so expansion is alot more straight forward. Or is a single brood box mostly always enough given supers are added?
Hi Richard
With singles you take the same preventative measures for swarming as with doubles. The queen can't use more cells than that provided in one brood chamber.
we have a several hives and decided this year to run some single brood box hives. we set up five or six and added the queen excluder and the supper on when the time was rite ( based on our double boxs 80 to 90% drawn out ) and we have fought swarms urges in those boxs all spring. just pulled all the excluders last week and moving back to doubles. what would we have possably got wrong? we do manage our hives for swarm prevention and although not big time we do have fair number of hive and run brobably 40 or 50 deep 4 or 5 frame deep matings nucs for our grafting purposes. so i feel like we have miised something. love your videos.
pan60 the panman check out ‘a Canadian beekeeper blog’ he explains swarming.
@@Ggizered we dont have issues in the doubles just when we tried the single? i think ( short of missing somthng ) we manage swarming with no issues. like i say it was only a issue on the single brood box hives we tried this year. i watch some of Canadian beekeepers blogs but sadly i dont have time to go through everything he posts or any ones for that matter. but thanks?
Hi There
Some strains of bees work better in doubles. It sounds like your's are that way.
We breed for a low tendency to swarm and singes work fine with our bees. In our province, 60,000 hives of 100,000 are managed as singles. We super early and check on the strongest hives for swarm preparation. Se our video 'Swarm control ' for more info. We'll have a video out soon titled 'swarm prevention'. Thanks for letting us know you find our videos helpful.
Hello Again Paul,
I’ve only done double brood chambers, and you are absolutely correct about the extra work & cost of them.
I want to run singles this year, but how/when do you know when you can remove supers & basically start crowding them into a smaller volume? Don’t they tend to try & swarm? Are you able to remove all but 1 honey super for winter?
I know this was 2019, but I’m trying to catch up on all your videos.
Can I support you thru patreon?
Thanks,
👋 Mike
Hi again Mike!
Thanks for you encouragement. Yes we remove all the honey supers in the fall and winter in a single. The easiest time to switch over is in the late spring by splitting double brood chamber hive into two single brood chamber hives. If you don't want more hives remove the bottom brood chamber early in the spring when the bees are all in the top super. This can work in our climate - not sure about yours.
Thanks for the offer of support. Our website has a donate tab and we are raising funds to build an new bee education centre. Any amount is appreciated! honeybee.uoguelph.ca/donate/
Thank You Paul,
I followed your link, & read up on your proposed “Bee Search Centre”.
It sounds very exciting, I wish I could give more to help, but I am retired now. I gave as much as I could right now.
Good Luck on a very worthy project!
👋 Mike
Campbell, Calif., USA
@@mikethebeeguy8657 Hi Mike
I like your naming... the "Bee Search Centre". Thanks for your enthusiasm about our project and for your help. We are hoping for a few large donations and many small ones. They all count!
I really enjoy your very educational videos. Quick question: what was that piece of felt that you used as your hive lid just below the telescopic lid? I've never seen that before and was wondering if that is what your using to minimize small hive beetles?
Hi There
It's a heavy weight canvas. Please see our FAQ #1. You can click on the FAQ link shown under any of our videos. We describe it a bit in our video 'Our Equipment". Thanks for your interest and generous feedback!
Great video Paul, thank you, i am a new beekeeper in northern BC, i built 3 hives but only have one with bees, started with a bee package in mid April, and they are doing very good with one deep for brood, excluder and so far 3 medium supers on it, I am a bit confused about the wintering process, do you remove the excluder and leave a full medium of cap honey or do you remove the excluder and only add bee candy on top of the frames and add a inner cover and a top cover. My hives are configured as followed, base stand, screen bottom boards, slatted boards, inner cover with 1 inch access and a quilt boards. Thank you
Hi Michel
Sounds like you have a good start! You could watch our video "feeding and overwintering' to see how we prepare our hives for winter. Our methods are similar to most commercial beekeepers here.
Could you add a deep with an excluder instead of a medium super to your single hive ?
I don't see why not, besides the fact that Deeps full of honey weigh a ton.
Thank you for your videos. I am starting with bees this spring and wondering if one brood box will work in Collingwood. We're a bit colder than Guelph.
Hi Diane
You are very welcome.
Sure it will. It's common on the prairies and its even colder there. Good luck getting started.
You also asked in an email about meeting local beekeepers. The best place is at a local beekeepers association. see www.ontariobee.com/community/local-beekeepers-associations
Hello,
Great video as always.
I'm already starting to think about winter preparations and so I'm wondering what is a good weight for a single brood chamber hive wintering outside. I also would like to know the answer to the same question but in regards to a double nuc colony
Thanks DH!
If they feel like they are bolted to the ground it's heavy enough :) We don't weigh but do feed 4 gallons of 2/1 syrup to each hive after taking off the honey supers. They always have enough to get through the winter with this amount of feed. Ditto for double nucs.
UoG Honey Bee Research Centre About how many weeks do they need to store the 4 gallons this is my first year and I'm trying to figure out when to take the honey supers off?
Hi, I have a question (sorry it's a long one), what do you do when you queen fills the brood chamber with brood? I'm young beekeeper from Serbia. I started with single brood chamber, but when there is a good honey flow the queen fills 1st chamber with brood and I need to add a second chamber to make a space for queen to lay eggs. Then on the second chamber I add box for honey.
Pozdrav kolega, samo u kratkim crtama da ti pomognem jer smo u istom škripcu obojica, pritom početnici. Ono što si pitao ako sam dobro razumeo je- šta se desi kad matica nema više mesta za polaganje legla, jer su okviri prenatrpani nektarom i polenom. Desi se tzv. blokada matice, prirodna situacija, bez panike. Uglavom po nekoj logici trebao bi da izvadiš po 1 ram sa hranom i umesto njega dodaš satnu osnovu. Taj ram sa hranom daš nekom slabijem društvu ili ostavis negde gde imaš uslova, pa kasnije kad nije više problem leglo, oduzmeš prazan ram i daš im hrane. Tako će pčele brzo napraviti novo saće, matica će imati mesta da zaleže i sve bi trebalo da se normalizuje.
@@aleksandarperic89 Hvala na odgovoru kolega, kada matica dodje u blokadu, ja obično ili izvadim ram sa medom (to je obično krajnji ram, ili 2 krajnja) i dodam 1 izgradjenu satnu osnovu I jednu praznu, kako bi matica odmah krenula da zaleze, nekada izvadim ram, dva najzrelijeg legla i stavim u gornji nastavak iznad matične rešetke i tako oslobodim prostora, nego me je zanimalo da li postoji neki drugi način. Odakle si, koliko dugo pčelariš?
@@itsFilaaa Prva godina, dakle apsolutni početnik; okolina Vršca. Sviđa mi se ovaj sistem sa samo jednim nastavkom plodišta, za sad mi je svejedno jer svakako moram da štancujem ramove, ali radi selidbe, rada oko košnica, ovaj sistem mi je favorit. Pozdrav
hello ....thank you very much for the vieo,
Just a question .....the little space for queen and the eggs laying is not a stimulus for swarming?.grreeting forma Chile!
Hi Carlos
Greetings in Chile!
We do other things to help prevent swarming and our bees are bred for a low tendency to swarm. This method is very common in our area.
What do the bees eat in the winter time to survive? I live in northern mn,
This is perfect, thank you! My question is (and I didn't see this in the FAQs) - how do I convert a double deep to single deep brood chamber? I'm new this year so it might be a dumb question but I know I can use a queen excluder to isolate her to one chamber but then what? Once the brood hatches out I assume the bees will still keep using the comb to store honey and I do not want that! I could leave it on and then just remove it in the spring, I suppose, but I'd rather deal with it right away.
Hi, essentially you need to find the Queen and put her in the new bottom brood box, Queen excluder, and then top brood box if you have lots of frames and cannot fit them all in one box. This is a good time to remove dirty old comb (bailey frame method) . Put the dirty comb in the top brood box above the Queen excluder. Eventually all that brood will hatch out and Queen will not be able to lay in it again. Then remove. If there is a flow they may put honey in the old comb so what you do is get a second Queen excluder and put the old comb at the bottom where they will not put honey. Eventually it depleats and you can remove the frames to render the wax
Hi There
Our pleasure. Thanks for checking the FAQ!
Assuming you are in North America, I'd wait until next year and split the hive around the time bees would naturally swarm where you live. That's around mid May here.
Have a look at our video 'splitting hives' and you'll see a method that fits your situation.
Why is the excluder required with the single? I’ve seen several other channels that don’t use excluders and they seem to do alright.
Do you ever have problems with running out of food through the winter? With the single brood chamber colonies?
No but we feed heavily in the fall. It works here in our conditions.
UoG Honey Bee Research Centre Our first frost is usually in late September. First snow is usually late October. Last frost is late May. How does that compare to your climate? I am considering going single box.
@@oscarb9139 Our conditions are very similar.
UoG Honey Bee Research Centre Thanks. I will be giving a single brood chamber a try this year.
You use the cloth inner cover. What is the advantage of that over a wooden inner cover with a hole in it for feeding and ventilation?
Hi Larry
That is our #1 question. Please see our FAQ here for a complete answer.
hbrc.ca/equipment-and-materials/
Your videos are awesome, thank you! I'm trying the single brood chamber management technique and loved it this summer ... so easy to do inspections ... lots of honey harvested. My problem came when I removed the supers this fall and left the hives with the single brood chamber only. A couple of my largest hives (4-5 honey supers) were so full, the bees couldn't all fit into the box and heavily bearded. Both of these hives then swarmed in mid-September, which I have never experienced before. I guess I could have pulled nucs, but I'd be concerned about rearing a queen that late and getting the nuc built up enough to make it through the winter (I'm in Utah). What would you recommend I try in the future?
Hi Mark
Thanks... I think. :) Glad you saw some advantages of using singles. We don't have a problem with fall swarming after harvesting even though there often isn't enough space
if the weather is warm. In our climate the weather gets colder after fall harvest and the summer bees die off so the crowding problem takes care of itself. Maybe you could harvest a bit later? Cheers!
I wonder if a solution to this could be to put on a box with empty foundation after removing the honey supers. This would give the crowded colony some extra room, while putting the bees to work drawing valuable comb while they are waiting for winter. Then you could take off this box a couple weeks later when the population starts to contract. Just a thought; I haven’t yet tried single chamber management, but I’m going to try it!
@@kentmeredith2945 great idea!