# Brood Factory Output



## DaisyNJ (Aug 3, 2015)

Dont forget about availability of drawn comb.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

CBQueens said:


> I believe Mike was using 10 frames total in his nucs. Mine will have 20 frames total in each hive. So would I get twice the brood output, 3 frames each week from each hive?


Mine are wintered in 3 or 4 stories...4 combs in each story, and can grow to 5 or 6 stories if necessary.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

DaisyNJ said:


> Dont forget about availability of drawn comb.



Most people do.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Don't forget that if you plan to sell bees, many states require inspections by the state apiarist. Are the 10 hives hives you currently have and will be over wintering, or are they packages/ nucs you will be buying next year? Makes a big difference in the projections. A strong hive should be able to supply two to three frames per month, especially if they are already drawn. Mine take several days to fully draw a deep frame, and then the queen takes several more days to lay it. And that is when they are going gangbusters.


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## John Davis (Apr 29, 2014)

Sounds like you are talking single queen 20 frame colonies. Michael is running his 4 frames with a queen in each side. So a queen laying up 12 frames coming out of winter.


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## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

bingo.. the limiting factor of a brood factory is the laying rate of a queen, and early season the abilty to keep brood warm(and as noted, drawn comb effect that rate)... 

Keep in mind the point of the palmer/webster set up is thermodynamics. Two 4 over 4 side by side colonys can keep more brood warm then the same amount of bees in two 10f singles. may not matter as much in your local 
however it not the "box" so much, its how you manage the box that matters more frames in a box don't give you more frames of brood, more queens do, if your wanting to stick with standard equipment go with 20 singles instead of 10 doubles


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## yotebuster1200 (Jul 28, 2013)

Michael, for some reason I thought you overwintered your nucs in 2 story set ups. Last winter I had some of mine in 2 story set ups and some in 3 story set ups and I didn't notice much difference in their ability to overwinter. (I would guess my winter is comparable to yours. I live at 6300 feet above seal level in the Idaho Rocky Mountains). Do you feel the 3 and 4 story nucs build up faster in the spring?


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

At this time of year, the nucs are in 2 or 3 or 4, depending when they were made up, and how far they've built up. I could keep them in 2 if I was into them all the time, pulling brood and adding comb. Too many bees for that, so I add additional stories as needed. In spring, they have to have more than 2 stories. You can pull brood, but the colony population still increases and when there's a good flow on. With only 2 stories, too much of that nectar goes in emerging brood and limits the amount of brood you can harvest. Not to mention swarming.

We're just now getting them ready for winter. The tall ones are giving a box of honey, while the rest are well packed with honey and many need little feed.


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## yotebuster1200 (Jul 28, 2013)

That makes sense. I did add boxes of drawn comb pretty early in the spring and by middle of summer they were 4 and 5 stories tall and that was even with me pulling frames of brood for cell builders. I broke them all down to 2 stories by the end of July and made more nucs.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

yotebuster1200 said:


> I broke them all down to 2 stories by the end of July and made more nucs.


Yep, that's basically what I do. These nucs are amazing. Build them up, take some away, build them up take some away...keep taking what you can until later in July, and them let them build up. Up, up, up...down, down, down...up, up, up. Fun!


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## yotebuster1200 (Jul 28, 2013)

Michael Palmer said:


> Up, up, up...down, down, down...up, up, up. Fun!


It is fun.

Once i started playing with nucs and raising queens, honey quickly became a nice bonus but that's about it. Raising queens and bees is where all the fun is! To be honest I am a little obsessed with it haha. I am getting hives ready for winter and at the same time I am making my spring and summer plans for next year. Now I wish I had more drawn comb.


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