Minimal intervention hive?

[CountryBee]

Meadlover, 5 deeps with the top one filled with 10 full frames with bees right?  Is it a top entrance?  Interesting....  Do you think they will move the honey to the bottom if it is a bottom entrance or start another colony in the same hive body?  5 deeps is a lot of space in NY, I don't know anything about another state, not to mention another country like yours so it will be interesting to see what happens.  Please let me know.   Thanks.

[Meadlover]

Not sure on where the entrance will be, probably a top entrance, haven't tried a top entrance yet though.
Will probably put a SHB trap in the bottom - SBB probably.
I don't see why they would move the honey around or start another hive, but then again I'm still pretty new to beekeeping. My assumption is, as in the wild they will build down, and backfill with honey as they go and expand.

ML

[Acebird]

We didn't put an excluder in this hive, and that would have helped greatly.  There was a lot of brace comb and cross-comb, hence the broken pieces.

Are you suggesting that excluding the queen prevents this from happening?  Anyone else like to comment on that?

[AR Beekeeper]

In the spring of 2005 I put 12 hives aside and have done nothing except check them for being queenright and enough winter food stores.  5 of the 12 are alive now.  They all started with queens purchaced from a breeder in Canada that treats for mites using formic acid, they have been on comb drawn on Pierco plastic foundations and have requeened themselves each year.  They have made their own food stores and have not been fed.  If any are alive in the spring those queens I will move to my home yard and they will become breeders.  Tough bees are out there, it is just being lucky enough to find them.

[Acebird]

have requeened themselves each year.

I thought the queens lasted more than a year.  Do you mark them so if one shows up without a mark you know it is new?

[AR Beekeeper]

When I said they requeened themselves each year that was poorly stated.  I should have said they successfully requeened themselves after swarming and that during the fall check, if supersedure cells were found, the following spring the colony was queenright.  My experience with queens has been they seldom last more than 14 to 16 months in colonies where their laying is not restricted.

[Acebird]

This is good to know.