# How many brood chambers and food chambers in the south.



## Chris L (Mar 19, 2003)

OK i live in Columbia Sc. I have just started reading some posts and see that some of you have 3 deeps as brood chambers. I was jsut wondering how many brood chambers do i need and how many for storing honey for the winter. I was just going to have one brood and one storage..am i being to greedy. I just want some honey from them this year but it doesnt look like it if they have to pull all of that comb out..as you can see from my last post its been 2 months and they have barley pulled out one deep super
chris

[This message has been edited by Chris L (edited May 15, 2003).]


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## lostcowboy (May 15, 2003)

Hi, I don't own any bees, but from the books I have been reading, the reason for the second deep super is so the bees will have food for the winter. I think the third deep super is mainly for the second year to keep the hive from swarming due to overcrowding. Sorry to say, almost all the books say don't expect any excess honey until the second year. But they do say to have one or more shallow supers handy just in case you have a good first year.


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## dragonfly (Jun 18, 2002)

Most of what I've heard and what my beekeeper friend told me is that generally, in the South, most beekeepers use one deep and one medium for over-wintering. From what I understand, Northern beekeepers use generally two deeps so that there are extra honey stores to get the bees through winter. From my experience, and this is just my second year, one deep and one medium are just fine for wintering here, but the bees really use up their stores in the month of March. One of my hives had a large amt of stores in Feb, and by April it was almost depleted. That has taught me that I need to keep a close check on their status when the weather starts warming up well, but there are no significant nectar sources yet.


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## hoosierhiver (Feb 27, 2003)

if you really want honey this year,either feed them as much as possible to help them draw out comb,or find someone who will sell you drawn comb.lastly even if you don't get a full honey super,you might be able to harvest a frame or two.


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## Chris L (Mar 19, 2003)

thanks for the replies,
I will get them building comb liek crazy then..sugar syrup it is... Thanks for the advice
chris


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## denise_ky (Aug 29, 2002)

Lloyd Spears, who is a very successful beekeeper in up-state NY and has written several articles for Bee Culture, uses one shallow and one deep for his bees. That is what I'm trying this year. He keeps the shallow on the bottom and the deep on the top and never reverses. If you all are really interested I'll try to find some time to go through my Bee Cultures to find which issue that particular article was in. Better yet, I guess it would be easier to e-mail him. He's always very good at answering his e-mail from beekeepers, in my experience.
Denise


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## denise_ky (Aug 29, 2002)

PS Chris,
I'm originally from Sumter.
Denise


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## Honeybelle (Apr 25, 2003)

I am from the Greenville area and all beekeepers that I have encountered all use 1 deep for the brood chamber and shallows for honey. This observation was confirmed by a Clemson extesion agent, Danny Howard, who used to be a bee inspector for SC. It may be because our winters are so mild that we may not need to store as much honey. The larger operators also tell me that two broods are not worth the trouble. I personally use a deep and shallow for laying topped by shallows for honey. Most of the time my queens have been content to stay in the deep. If a hive gets too crowded I combine some frames with a weaker colony or do a split.


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## GalvestonCo (Nov 3, 2002)

I finally found a beekeeper to talk to down here and he said most are using one medium and one deep for brood boxes. I have two deeps on my two new hives and he said that would be OK also. I live in the Houston area.


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

Up here in the north, we do speak occasionally about how everything in the south is a little slow, you know, speech and all. But to actually talk about how slow your bees are....whats next, some from Texas saying his bees are so big they suck the flower right off the stem?

A good reason for an extra brood box in winter is that they will sometimes go into spring alot stronger. And this gives you a great way to do a split by simple removing one box and having the original box still two deep in strength.


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## dragonfly (Jun 18, 2002)

We may be a little slow down here, you know, our speech and all, but we make up for it with attitude, I mean our bees make up for it with attitude. It's just the heat that makes us crany, I mean makes our bees cranky. And the slow southern drawl is just an act to keep adversaries off guard. It just sounds so sweet, lol.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I still don't understand why anyone would mix frame sizes in the brood area. Why would you want a shallow and a deep? Why not two mediums or three mediums or four mediums or one deep or two deeps or three deeps. Seems like having different sized frames with brood in them would make splits more complicated. I must be missing something.


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## mark williams (Jan 19, 2003)

M.B. is 100% right,mixing is the wrong way to go ,or I'm like Micheal I'm missing out on something.I've tried it before & man what a mess.If I had to start new I'd go with Mediums on every thing(brood & supers).that way it's one size for everything,


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## Clayton (Dec 8, 2000)

I'm with you on this one Micheal. Standardized equipment saves alot of head ache and is interchangable. But then again I'm a proponent of unlimited broodnest regardless of what part of the country.


Clay


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## Pepper1079 (May 21, 2000)

In Tennessee, I use 3 deeps and do very well.

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Jim


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## cpecka (Mar 1, 2002)

I use 2 Deeps for the brood nest and have plenty of bees, room and winter survival.

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Chuck


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## Greysmoke (Apr 15, 2003)

I was wondering the same thing about 1 vs. 2 brood boxes. Alot of locals around here N. Ga. seem to use just 1 but I'm starting with 2. Even though that I'm just as excited on getting my supers up and drawn I also want a good and strong colony. A friend of mine uses 1 deep and a medium...but then again it seems that he is constantly chasing swarms.
Thanx to all for your comments and recommendations.


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## Honeybelle (Apr 25, 2003)

I may try two broods on one of my hives next year. The drawback that I see is that deeps full of honey could get too heavy for a small woman like me to manipulate. Also, people selling bee supplies locally sell only deeps and shallows, and not mediums. I agree it would be more efficient to switch to all deeps or mediums but I think that they would be too heavy for me to use for honey. I started using a deep and shallow for brood because that was all I had and knew and saw people using. As I said, except for 1 or 2 queens who laid in 3 honey supers, most have been content to stay in the deep and not lay in the first shallow even. The bees usually make the first shallow a honey super eventually even after the queen lays in it initially. I am going to call Mr. Howard later this week and ask about double brood supering in this area.


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## Chris L (Mar 19, 2003)

Thank you all for your comments, i really appreciate all of your help. I took all of your advise into consideration and i think i am going to go with 2 deeps for brood and shallows for honey. I have also started sugar water back up to get them to pull more comb out
,,,What time of the year should i stop feeding them sugar? any suggestions?
...well it looks like i have to go to the garage and get building, i think these bees are takeing over my life, my money, and my mind. And now they are slowly infecting my girlfriend, she is getting obsessed like me. All she does is talk about how cool bees are and gives me random facts about what a bee can do..man they are good....I bet we could get bees to take over the world


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

It seems that shipping for hives from Walter T. Kelly's in KY or Brushy Mt. in North Carolina shouldn't be that much to where ever you are in the CSA. You can buy mediums from either of them. Also, if you really wanted, you could run just shallows. The boxes would be light and the wax hardly buckles even with no wires.

Another option is to build your own brood chamber and make a double wide, this (because of the extra space on the ends and the missing sides in the middle) is 22 frames. Then you can put bound queen excluders and twin towers of supers on that. http://www.beesource.com/eob/althive/bush/bush3.htm http://www.beesource.com/eob/althive/bush/bush8.htm


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## GalvestonCo (Nov 3, 2002)

Michael, I should have mentioned that the man I talked, a friend of my dads, was a commercial beekeeper. He's just about out of the bee business now. What he was telling me was from their standpoint. Evidently the bigger outfits around here move their hives at certain times of the year to pollinate crops. I'm not real clear on this but they have to have X number of bees per hive and the big box and a medium satisfy this requirement. My bees are busy drawing out the second deep now so I'm happy I did it that way. You're right, makes things much simpler.


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## beekeeper28 (Nov 27, 2002)

I used (1) deep and (1) medium last winter and it was a very cold, wet, and prolonged winter last year and my bees came through fine. Most of the honey in the medium was not touched.

But on the other hand I agree with M.Bush I have found out this spring that the mixing of brood frames is not pratical. I'm planing to start using long hives like TBH, but if I do purchase any more boxes they will be all mediums for brood and honey supers.


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## paddlebee (May 11, 2003)

Chris, sounds like you have already made up your mind about your boxes so it seems pointless to throw in my 2 cents worth on that one, but did want to make a comment about what MB posted. My advice is go with the crimped wire over the cut comb. If you are going to be harvesting cc guess you don't have much of a choice in the matter but my Pops used non-wired foundation last summer and what a mess! Gets/got so hot down here in the south that semi-melted the wax and threw all kind of waves and sags before the bees were able to draw it out. The price dif. isn't that significant in my opinion and the money you save will be more than used up in support pins....GOOD LUCK

David


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## Chris L (Mar 19, 2003)

Guys thanks so mmuch for all of your help on this topic and all of the others. This board has been a huge help to me and i owe alot of what i know to you all...thanks so much
chris


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## 5TR-Apiary (May 6, 2003)

I'm in the Sandhills of NC, most of the beekeepers around here, use 2 hive bodies. One for brood chamber and one for food. It works for us.


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