Author Topic: Honey Bound ~ Any rules to follow  (Read 2668 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline 40 Acre Bees

  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 211
  • Thanked: 12 times
  • Location: Chester Basin, Nova Scotia Canada
Honey Bound ~ Any rules to follow
« on: April 09, 2017, 07:11:19 pm »
I have been doing some reading about having brood boxes that are honey bound.  In a double deep 10 frame hive, how many frames of honey should be in the brood boxes, so the queen will have lots of room.  Also is there a preferred frame configuration of frame placement? I am thinking that the possibly we lost our one hive this year because the queen ran out of room to lay in the late summer and the amount of bees was way to low to make it through the winter.  Is there a common rule that I should use to avoid them getting honey bound.  Thanks in advance.

Offline Perry

  • Global Moderator
  • Gold Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 7382
  • Thanked: 390 times
  • Gender: Male
    • Brandt's Bees
  • Location: Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia
Re: Honey Bound ~ Any rules to follow
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2017, 07:18:20 pm »
The thinking is that a queen can only lay up about 9 frames completely (100%) and that brood hatches, opening up those cells for her to refill. I guess that would mean roughly 10 frames should be open for her to lay up, but then also consider that the bees need space for bee bread (pollen and nectar) close by to be able to feed that brood.
When I go through a hive I like to make sure that there is always space for the queen to lay and will remove frames of capped honey (deeps) during the summer and store them for safe keeping later. When I go around in the fall to see if hives are heavy, any that aren't get some of those frames dropped back in.
"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."      
Forum Supporter