gonna try again-advice please

[neillsayers]

Gonna install a purebred Russian colony in one of 8-frame langs soon. Those of you that run 8-frame hives, how many brood boxes is the target. My brood boxes are  deeps and. I have about 10 frames drawn to give them. Ideas?

[Perry]

Riverbee will have something to add I'm sure.

[Les]

I run two eight frame deeps for my brood boxes.  My honey supers are all mediums.

[Lburou]

Gonna install a purebred Russian colony in one of 8-frame langs soon. Those of you that run 8-frame hives, how many brood boxes is the target. My brood boxes are  deeps and. I have about 10 frames drawn to give them. Ideas?

The answer to your question, Neil, is in location & your philosophy of feeding.  Here, I have overwintered with five or six frames of honey (in one 8 frame deep hive body), but there needs to be an early flow to make sure they don't starve if you don't want to feed. 

Your philosophy about early feeding can also be a factor:  Do you want to leave the bees more reserve honey with less spring feeding, or less honey & mountain camp feeding over winter and more early spring feeding syrup?

Up north, the requirement could be two or three deeps full of honey & bees going into winter.  All beekeeping is local.  I would bet that two deeps with Russian bees would be plenty in MO.  A deep and a medium is my favorite configuration.  Used it in Wyoming, South Central Alaska and Texas.  HTH   

[neillsayers]

Thanks everyone. The Russians I have in Warre hives use two boxes for brood, which is approximatly a 10-frame deep in size, so I figure they ought to be able to handle 2 8-frame deeps for brood, but I am not sure.

[riverbee]

neil,
russians are quite conservative on stores (and pack it away), they are also very conservative when there is a dearth of nectar and pollen (queen stops laying or slows down), she also slows down come early fall. also, russian queens tend to start laying a little later in spring months, but when they do, (both pollen and nectar coming in) a colony can really get away from you if you are not paying attention.

i keep 2 deeps, 9 frames langstroth for each hive.  the russians survive our winters minus any problems. in the past few years i also add extra feed via a feeding rim, even though the top deep may be heavy with capped honey. just extra insurance. like any other bee, capped honey inches away and they won't move sideways, but they will move to the feed directly above them. sometimes amazing to me opening them up in spring to find the amount of honey frames left and a smaller cluster. i have kept 3 deeps. it's really not practical imho.

lee also brings up some good points; location, philosophy on feedings and requirements for your location.  i rarely have to feed sugar syrup, unless there is a dearth (anytime during the season), or they are not heavy enough going into winter to my liking. sometimes i just feed back frames of honey i did not harvest in the fall or from a dead out from a previous season, if i have them.

i have not kept warre hives neil, and really have no knowledge of keeping bees in them other than what i have read.

you have had russians in the past i thought? what has been your hive configuration?

[neillsayers]

Riverbee,

Thanks for your reply, I was hoping you'd weigh in. Our winters are much milder than yours and most beeks in this area seem to configure with one brood box but I don't know anyone with 8-frame boxes.

Last two winters, I have left about 20 lbs of honey and they have used about half of it. Of course, we have had two mild winters in a row.  I may be overthinking this but I like to think I have all bases covered.

Thanks

[riverbee]

neil,
i think you will be alright with two 8 deeps. if that is what you are currently using, i wouldn't change anything and i would keep to two 8 frame deeps.  you are not overthinking this and it's good that you are asking and questioning. most keeps in your area, are they using 10 frame langstroths? do they leave a medium super on come winter?

typically for me the 2nd deep is usually packed with honey with at least 4 frames in the bottom.  this past winter, i had two colonies literally go through all the honey frames in the top deep. these were very large/strong colonies and i am certain this was because of temp swings and our late fall warm temps and unusually mild temp swings from december to february. better to leave them with more than less neil. also, better to give queens the room to lay, and room for the bees to store the honey, and be able to add supers and take advantage of a good year for a honey harvest.

[neillsayers]

Thanks RB,

That's the way I was thinking. The few keeps I know around here are using one 10 frame brood box and medium supers. One warre box is roughly equivalent to one 8-frame medium. Two warres are roughly equivalent to one 10 frame deep. My langs are all 8 frame. I figure if I give them two deeps she'll have lots of room to lay and they can store winter honey in the rest.

Sound reasonable?

[riverbee]

sounds reasonable to me neil, thanks for the education on your area and more importantly warre's and 8 frame langs!

really what it comes down to is what you find that works. for example i tried 3 deep langstroths U of Minnesota style; experiment on 3 hives (9 frames each) for several years. what a PITA and a management nightmare.  i was, what are you thinking, but had to try it.  didn't work for me. went back to what has and does work for me. 

good luck neil, keep us posted on progress. you know you always grab my attention when it comes to the russian bees!