# Experiment participants wanted



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

THE EXPERIMENT:

The idea is to do these side by side and see how the results compare. If you only wish to do one or the other feel free to give your results, but a side-by-side comparison would be more useful. Walt is quite certain of the results of the Checkerboarding compared to the typical brood box reversal system, but if you'd like to compare it to that, both for this experiment and for your own enlightenment, that would also be useful information. 

These should be third year or more colonies. First and second year colonies have slightly different timing and goals.

OBSERVATIONS:

If you open the hives every week and use thumbtacks or push pins to mark the top of the brood nest (three pins would work nicely, one in the center and one a couple of frames in from each side). You can log the brood nest expansion by that date by how many inches up it has moved. Also monitor overhead nectar storage. If the brood nest starts contracting before the peak of the apple blossoms then, for Opening the Brood Nest colonies its time to add more empty frames. Make sure you have alternating frames over the brood nest of honey and nectar or empty drawn comb. You can do these alternating frames all the way to the top. Once you are two weeks before the main flow (one week after apples stop blooming) I would stop trying to get them to expand the brood nest. Once the main flow hits you shouldnt need to monitor the brood nest anymore, but rather make sure there are plenty of supers on to prevent overcrowding.

So, to recap:

1) Keep notes on when you do what manipulations by date.
2) Keep notes on the size of the brood nest and the amount of expansion or contraction of it by date.
3) Keep notes on when you see white wax.
4) Keep notes on when you see different plants blooming in your area.

Hints:

One way to keep track of some of the blooms, like Maple and Elm is to go to www.pollen.com and see what they say is the prevalent pollen at the time.


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## swarm_trapper (Jun 19, 2003)

will the checker boarding work with foundation instead of empty drawn combs? Nick


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

It may be better than nothing, but the concept is to use drawn comb. I've never done either so I have no experience with what the bees will do with the foundation. How about capped combs with empty frames between?


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## chief (Apr 19, 2005)

I would love to do something like this. Mostly to be mentored by you and Walt but I'm afraid my hives are too few in numbers and years to do this. I also plan on doing some major spliting and queen rearing with the hives I do have. Please remember to keep us informed of the results when the come out!


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## Chef Isaac (Jul 26, 2004)

I am game on finding out if checkerboarding really does work.


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## Chef Isaac (Jul 26, 2004)

chief: wanna get together sometime? I just noticed you are not to far away from me.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

If anyone has additional ideas please add them, but here's an idea for a template for a log entry:

Location ________________
Hive name/id ________________
Date _______________
Manipulations performed _________________
Estimate of brood nest size (diameter)______________________
Brood nest expansion/contraction (difference in height from last time to this time based on thumbtacks) __________________
Backfilling of brood nest (Y/N) _____________
Estimate of cluster size (diameter)___________________
White wax (Y/N) _____________
Swarm cells (Y/N) _______________
Currently blooming plants _____________________
Size of cells in newly drawn comb (if there are any) ______________________________ (measure across ten cells with a metric ruler and move the decimal to the left one place)
General observations __________________________________________


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## Blue.eyed.Wolf (Oct 3, 2005)

I am planning to do the brood box checker boarding to downsize to natural cell, but my goals for the year are splits and Queen rearing like chief. Thanks for the info on the "when and how", but I dont think my results will help out since I am headed in a different direction.


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## Walts-son-in-law (Mar 26, 2005)

MANY thanks to Michael for taking charge of this and to all who participate. I am setting up email notification so I can monitor progress for Walt.

BTW Walt is currently traveling to North Carolina to participate in a large workshop. Unfortunately (I hang my head in shame), I neglected to ask Walt where the workshop was, the name, or when he is presenting. I am about to start a new thread called (inspired name  'Walt Wright at North Carolina Workshop' to ask if anyone out there if they have the information. All I know at this time is that there is a large meeting/workshop that takes place over the course of a couple of months.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

http://www.wncbees.org/

Look at the "advanced outline" for when Walt is scheduled.

Sunday Jan.22nd 2-4 PM
Asheville High school
419 McDowell St
Asheville, NC 28803


http://www.wncbees.org/school/skyschool.jpg
http://www.google.com/maps?q=asheville+high+school+near+asheville&spn=0.045961,0.058219&cid=35600833,-82554167,16292923508590128693&iwloc=A&hl=en


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## Bill Ruble (Jan 2, 2006)

I'd like to be part of this, however, I am just now getting back in to the bees and have no drawn comb except the one hive. I will have over 25 hives later this year, but afraid my setup will not help out at this time. If it will, then advise me by e mail.


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## ikkybeer (Jan 11, 2006)

MB,

I've been reading some of the material on checkerboarding and opening the brood area with some interest. I have a few questions.

In the picture of the checkerboard hives with Mr. Wright, it looks as if some caulking was applied to the edge of the metal on the tops. What does that do?

Mr. Wright says to always make sure the broodnest has room to expand, does the broodnest keep expanding into the shallow supers as you add more? 

Do you take supers that have filled with honey above the broodnest and use them to create the checkerboarding?

In your system of opening the brood chamber, do you do any special manipulations for the honey supers as I think I am reading in the checkerboard system?

Walid


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

I've been thinking about "checkerboarding" and "opening up the broodnest" with empty frames. I don't have much drawn comb, so I'll mostly be checkerboarding the later. I had planned on taking notes and sending them to Walt, so I'll send them to you too Michael and try and put them in decent format while thinking about what you guys are trying to do. I can't do the side by side comparisons, and I have a few queens comming for splits that I will need to squeeze in too. Any other splits will be done if I see swarm cells developing. And likely a cut down split as the honey flow is gearing up. Hopefully my notes will at least be of some side benifit. Please post any additional info on when/how to add empty frames as they may come to you. I've been following that concept some and will look over walts' manuscript some more before I start working.

Thanks, Michael


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## Jim Young (Aug 31, 2004)

Following is my protocol for Nectar Management (aka: Checkerboard) based on Walt Wright's publications and input from Michael Bush. This protocol was further modified to incorporate "Opening the Broodnest with Empty Frames" while the hive is being "Checkerboarded".

The initial 2005 blooming dates for trees in my area closely parallels the tree blooming timeline discussed by Michael Bush.

Winged Elm 18 Jan
Maple 3 Mar
Bradford Pear 15 Mar
Redbud 25 Mar
Apple 10 Apr
Black Locust 19 Apr 
==============================

Original Nectar Management

The objectives are: prevent swarming; increase early brood development to the equivalent of two and one-half deep hive bodies; and, induce early nectar storage in honey supers continuing through the major nectar flow.

A. Hive Configuration: Configure the hive(s) into one of the following recommended schemes:

1. Medium Super Scheme: Screened bottom board; four medium brood supers; and, top feeder.

2. Deep Hive Body Scheme: Screened bottom board; one medium super; one deep hive body; one medium brood super; and, top feeder.

B. Procedures:

1. Fall (October): Insure the top super, based on the configuration discussed above, is filled with capped honey. Feed 1:1 sugar:water to fill brood nest with liquid feed. Feed 1:1 sugar water until the bees quit consuming it. However, feeding sugar water may not be necessary with an adequate Fall nectar flow.

2. ELM Tree Bloom: When Elm trees start blooming:

a. Add one medium brood super with drawn comb and checkerboard it with the medium super immediately below it. Remove every other nectar/capped honey-filled frame from the lower super and replace them with drawn comb frames from the medium super being placed atop the nectar/capped honey-filled medium brood super. Thus, if frames are numbered from left to right and frame number two is removed from the honey/nectar-filled medium brood super, then it will be exchanged with frame number two (drawn comb) from the medium brood super being added. 

b. After performing this checkerboarding manipulation, add a second medium brood super with drawn comb.

c. Anticipate the broodnest expanding upwards into the three medium brood supers above the overwintered broodnest. Therefore, the three medium brood supers immediately above the broodnest should contain dark comb.

d. Periodically, monitor the three medium brood supers for brood expansion and maintain two empty medium honey supers with empty drawn comb above the broodnest and nectar filled supers. 

3. REDBUD Tree Bloom: When Redbud trees start blooming:

a. If one or more honey supers were added above the third medium brood super, place an Imirie shim between the third medium brood super and the first honey super. Thereafter, place an Imirie shim between every two medium honey supers which have been added. However, if honey supers were not added above the medium brood supers, add an Imirie shim and add two medium honey supers with drawn comb. 

b. If the hive only has two medium honey supers above the three medium brood supers, add another Imirie shim and two more medium honey supers with drawn comb. 

c. Monitor the top honey super on a weekly basis and maintain one medium honey super with empty drawn comb on top of the hive.

4. BLACK LOCUST Tree Bloom: 

a. After the Black Locust blossoms fades, bees will begin capping honey cells and decrease brood rearing. Anticipate the medium brood supers being back-filled with nectar and capped honey.

b. The colony will supercede the queen if necessary; therefore, do not destroy any supercedure queen cell. If the hive is queen-less, take action to re-queen the hive.

===================

Nectar Management Combined with Opening the Brood Nest

The objectives are: prevent swarming; increase early brood development to the equivalent of two and one-half deep hive bodies; produce early white wax in frames; and, induce early nectar storage in honey supers continuing through the major nectar flow.

Procedures:

1. ELM Tree Bloom: When Elm trees start blooming:

a. Add one medium brood super with drawn comb and checkerboard it with the medium super immediately below it. Remove every other nectar/capped honey-filled frame from the lower super and replace them with drawn comb frames from the medium super being placed atop the nectar/capped honey-filled medium brood super. Thus, if frames are numbered from left to right and frame number two is removed from the honey/nectar-filled medium brood super, then it will be exchanged with frame number two (drawn comb) from the medium brood super being added. 

b. After performing this checkerboarding manipulation, add a second medium brood super with drawn comb.

c. Anticipate the broodnest expanding upwards into the three medium brood supers above the overwintered broodnest. Therefore, the three medium brood supers immediately above the broodnest should contain dark comb.

d. Periodically, monitor the three medium brood supers for brood expansion and maintain two empty medium honey supers with empty drawn comb above the broodnest and nectar filled supers. 

2. BRADFORD PEAR Tree Bloom: When Bradford Pear trees start blooming:

a. Place empty frames (not frames with foundation, but frames with either a starter strip or comb guide or nothing) in the broodnest, to shift the colony to the establishment mode and drawing wax much earlier. To make room for the empty frames, move the frames on the outside of the brood box up to the next box or down or out altogether (depending on your equipment) and move the brood combs to the sides and place the empty frames between two frames of brood. To prevent chilling brood, make sure there are enough bees to quickly fill the gap(s) with festooning bees before inserting the frame(s). 

b. Check the broodnest every week and add one or more frames if there are enough bees to handle the extra space.

c. Discontinue inserting empty frames into the broodnest when Black Locust trees start blooming or earlier.

3. REDBUD Tree Bloom: When Redbud trees start blooming:

a. If one or more honey supers were added above the third medium brood super, place an Imirie shim between the third medium brood super and the first honey super. Thereafter, place an Imirie shim between every two medium honey supers which have been added. However, if honey supers were not added above the medium brood supers, add an Imirie shim and add two medium honey supers with drawn comb. 

b. If the hive only has two medium honey supers above the three medium brood supers, add another Imirie shim and two more medium honey supers with drawn comb. 

d. Monitor the top honey super on a weekly basis and maintain one medium honey super with empty drawn comb on top of the hive.

4. BLACK LOCUST Tree Bloom: 

a. After the Black Locust blossoms fades, bees will begin capping honey cells and decrease brood rearing. Anticipate the medium brood supers being back-filled with nectar and capped honey.

c. The colony will supercede the queen if necessary; therefore, do not destroy any supercedure queen cell. If the hive is queen-less, take action to re-queen the hive.


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## PA Pete (Feb 2, 2005)

Like others, I'd love to try checkerboarding this spring, but I don't have the drawn comb. I do plan to use empty frames to open the brood nest, Per MB's suggestions.

I'm looking forward to the results as I will definitely be trying checkerboarding in 2007.

-Pete


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>In the picture of the checkerboard hives with Mr. Wright, it looks as if some caulking was applied to the edge of the metal on the tops. What does that do?

I know nothing about how he builds his tops.

>does the broodnest keep expanding into the shallow supers as you add more?

I don't run shallows at all. I think Walt winters with a shallow on the top and bottom. Since I run all mediums I try to get them to expand as much as they want. I assume Walt is doing something similar with the shallows.

>Do you take supers that have filled with honey above the broodnest and use them to create the checkerboarding?

I believe that's the idea is to put empty drawn combs between the capped ones.

>In your system of opening the brood chamber, do you do any special manipulations for the honey supers as I think I am reading in the checkerboard system?

I haven't. For this experiment I was proposing doing it in both cases so we can analyze the effects of opening the broodnest in addition to checkerboarding.


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## wayacoyote (Nov 3, 2003)

Michael, I was trying to make a rough list of the blooming times you gave but got in over my head... could you do that for us? I had it started as: 
Week Zero - elm bloom starts, checkerboard hives
Week Four - Maple bloom starts
Week Five - Red Bud Bloom starts
Week 8 - Apple bloom starts
Week Nine - Peek Apple Bloom, Repro c/o
etc...

I wasn't sure on some nor was I sure where "open broodnest" should fall in the listing. Thanks.

Jim, Thanks for that wonderful list you gave. Very clear.

Waya


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Slightly off-topic but any good ways to tell when elms bloom? I haven't used a ladder yet to check out the buds, but what do the blooms look like, flowers/catkins etc? I'll continue to check out pollen.com for sure.


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## Barry Digman (May 21, 2003)

Elm blossoms.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/34289/

[ January 22, 2006, 10:37 AM: Message edited by: coyote ]


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## ikkybeer (Jan 11, 2006)

Jim or Michael,

Would you ever pull full honey supers off while you are maintaining the one empty super? When you are maintaining one empty one, how empty does it need to be?

When the brood nest expands into the 3 medium supers, what happens after the main honey flow? Does it recede back down into the lower brood boxes, or do you do some manipulation to prepare yourself again for the following season?

Thank you for spelling out this very interesting idea. Even though I don't own a single bee yet(would I ever, really?) I would like to structure my arriving nucs to to take advantage of this system next year. I am already going to take MB's advice and use five frame deep and medium nuc setups to get me to natural size cells quickly.

This is great,

Walid


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Nice Coyote, thanks!


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## Jim Young (Aug 31, 2004)

Coyote gave a link to Lacebark Elm (Ulmus parvifolia) which blooms in late Summer and early Fall. Flowering Elm trees in early Spring have no developed leaves when they bloom. Following are links to Elm trees blooming in early Spring.

Ulmus pumila (Siberian elm)
http://www.uwgb.edu/biodiversity/herbarium/trees/ulmpum_flowers01.jpg

Ulmus alata (Winged Elm)
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/36480.html/

Jim Young


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>I wasn't sure on some nor was I sure where "open broodnest" should fall in the listing. Thanks.

From my previous post: "Walt and I discussed this at length and concluded we think the best time to try this right after the elm bloom or right at the Maple bloom or 2 weeks before the Redbud bloom or two weeks or four weeks before the apple bloom or 6 weeks before the black Locust bloom. NOTE: in theory these are all the same point of seasonal development, I'm just listing all the different blooms in case you know when one of them is to calculate from. I do notice that going by Walts chart (in the manuscript) Im usually about a month behind him. But that seems to be a little more than that in some places. For instance, the Locust bloom here was mid May last year and six weeks before that would be the first of April. Yet at the first of April Im past the elm and maple blooms. Here, the blooms at the first of April are wild plums and other early fruit trees. You might just look for early fruit trees blooming in your area to key on for opening up the brood nest. Before that there probably isn't any flow coming in to make wax from."

These are all the same time. I'm just giving references from any bloom Walt had listed to give you, hopefully, a reference that you do know. If all else fails, I'd just go for the first early fruit bloom. Around here that's wild plums and chokecherries, mostly, but there are also a lot of ornemental frut trees in town that bloom around the same time.

>Slightly off-topic but any good ways to tell when elms bloom?

They get little green flowers on them before they get leaves. The flowers are easy to spot because until then the trees are bare. Also a good wind will blow some of them off. Well the wind might blow more here.









> I haven't used a ladder yet to check out the buds, but what do the blooms look like, flowers/catkins etc? I'll continue to check out pollen.com for sure.

I usually go by pollen.com but when you see some green on the elms at all that's the buds of the flowers and they will bloom not too long after that.

>Elm blossoms.
>http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/34289/

I only know the Chinese elms they have around here. The American elms are gone and the rest I haven't seen.

>Jim or Michael, Would you ever pull full honey supers off while you are maintaining the one empty super? When you are maintaining one empty one, how empty does it need to be?

I see no problem pulling honey if you like. I tend to try to extract once and I prefer to let the bees keep the ants and wax moths out until I'm ready to extract.

>When the brood nest expands into the 3 medium supers, what happens after the main honey flow? Does it recede back down into the lower brood boxes, or do you do some manipulation to prepare yourself again for the following season?

I do not manipulate them. I figure they know what they are doing. Often the just stay at the top all winter and keep moving stores up as they need them. Sometimes they spend all winter at the bottom.

>Flowering Elm trees in early Spring have no developed leaves when they bloom.

Exactly.


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## Walts-son-in-law (Mar 26, 2005)

ikkybeer,

I discussed the caulking with Walt tonight. It is one of the deep, dark secrets that enable his whole system to work...

No, seriously. Walt doesn't have a sheet metal break or form to get sharp creases at the edges of the top (notice how they are rounded looking). So the sides tend to flare out. Walt uses a staple gun to tack them down. After a while the staples rust and break, or just work themselves out. So he uses the caulk to help stick the edges down and to 'waterproof' the staples.

Now you know one of his most charished secrets.


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## wayacoyote (Nov 3, 2003)

Flash News:

Red Maple Blooming in Tuscaloosa, AL on Jan 23, 06
I'm not sure when it started, just noticed it as I was driving the interstate.

Waya


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## PA Pete (Feb 2, 2005)

And American Elm

Not sure when it blooms though. I know of some beauties here in SE PA but no healthy mature trees that I know of nearby. All of the beautiful trees over at Ursinus College got hit by blight last year and the year before and they've either died and been taken down or they're on their way.  I have a 2yo Valley Forge American Elm in a landscaping pot out back ready to go into a permanent location this spring









-Pete


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I am afraid that the weather may throw off the blooms this year. I hope all of us and the trees and the bees can work it out.







My bees are a month or two ahead on buildup judging by the size of the clusters.


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## wayacoyote (Nov 3, 2003)

reminder


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

After spending two days until after midnight talking with Walt Wright last week, I have a clearer understanding of what he hopes to find out with this experiment. If you've read his manuscript some of this will be more familar, but basically Walt believes (he would correct me and say he knows) that there is plenty of nectar well before the "main nectar flow" and the bees just have a lull there as they make up their mind to either swarm or go into storage mode. He says that second year colonies are still in establishement mode and what he sees in second year colonies is different than established colonies. First of all they are drawing white wax earlier and they don't have the lull. In other words there is a three or four week longer "nectar flow" for them because they don't have the lull. The issue we want to discover is whether putting empty comb in will set off making white wax early and put them into establishment mode and be able to "cash in" on that three week or so lull.

I put some empty frames (or bars in the top bar hives) yesterday in the hives that seemed strong enough. Some I didn't becuase I didn't think they were strong enough yet and some I didn't get to yet. Mine are way ahead of schedule right now.


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## wayacoyote (Nov 3, 2003)

Michael,
I couldn't sleep until I found this note in my notebook: 
"Walt mentions that a split can initiate wax production up to a month before the white-wax flow. What does this mean for a split made 5 weeks before the onset of white wax? A whole week without any wax making capabilities? How do the bees know gauge the 4 weeks (surely not by a calendar







" 

Can you comment on these questions? I wrote them in November and haven't bothered Walt with them yet.
Waya


PS, my hives are second-year, and are definately drawing wax earlier that "white wax". I wish I had known this concept of establishment mode; I would have already added foundation...


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>I couldn't sleep until I found this note in my notebook: 
>"Walt mentions that a split can initiate wax production up to a month before the white-wax flow. What does this mean for a split made 5 weeks before the onset of white wax? A whole week without any wax making capabilities? How do the bees know gauge the 4 weeks (surely not by a calendar " 

I'm sure it's an estimate and more controled by the temperature and nectar than by the number of weeks.

>PS, my hives are second-year, and are definately drawing wax earlier that "white wax". I wish I had known this concept of establishment mode; I would have already added foundation...

The concept of empty comb is that while Walt usually sees old wax used to draw foundation this early, the bees seem to build white wax in empty frames.


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## Jim Young (Aug 31, 2004)

On 5 March when Bradford Pear trees began blooming, an empty frame with a half-inch strip of foundation was placed within the broodnest. An inspection on 12 March revealed that recycled wax comb was used to draw comb about the size of a silver dollar within the empty frame. There was no evidence of any white comb. The hives will be checked on a weekly basis to determine when white comb is drawn in the empty frames.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

It's early yet. Maybe they will start some new wax yet.







We'll see what mine do.


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## Dave W (Aug 3, 2002)

In Evansville, Indiana on April 22, 2005 my bees were drawing foundation w/ white wax. May have started a bit sooner


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## Craig W. (Feb 26, 2006)

Michael siad "These should be third year or more colonies. First and second year colonies have slightly different timing and goals."

I wonder, what are the different goals?

Thanks,
Craig


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>I wonder, what are the different goals?

According to Walt, establishment. The goal for the first year and often the second year is to get established. According to Wlat, this can cause them to skip the lull before the nectar flow in the second year. What Walt wants to know is if you can get an established (3 years or more) colony to skip the lull by fooling them into believe they are in "establishment" mode, since he believes there is nectar but they are not gathering. The hypothesis is that since drawing white wax that early is ascociated with establishment mode and so is skipping the lull and starting nectar gathering several weeks earlier. Therefore perhaps the bees will believe they are in establishment mode if there is something that will cause them to make white wax earlier. If this hypothesis works, this could extend the nectar flow by several weeks. If not, this manipulation will still keep them from swarming.







And perhaps contribute to them building up more quickly.


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## Craig W. (Feb 26, 2006)

Forgive me for my ignorance but, are you using the word "establish" as we would use the word in "establishing ourselves in society"?

Thanks,
Craig


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## PA Pete (Feb 2, 2005)

Hmmmm... This sounds like an interesting theory, but I'm wondering what could govern the colony's perception of where it stands w/r to its "establishment." The only thing I can think of with enough "history" is the Queen and her pheromones. Unless you consider that the hive or frames or comb could somehow convey the age of a colony to its inhabitants, and these are all influenced by the beekeeper.

So back to the Queen - if she is replaced each fall, wouldn't this "make" the colony think it was still in "establishment mode" each spring? I wonder if Walt has done any investigation into the impact of the age of the Queen and the display of "establishment mode" behaviour?

-Pete


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Forgive me for my ignorance but, are you using the word "establish" as we would use the word in "establishing ourselves in society"?

"Establishment" as in a pioneer who is trying to get the field cleared and a house built and a barn built as opposed to an "established" homestead that has all of those things. This is that vigor that beekeepers often refer to a swarm having. That single minded motivation that a swarm has to build comb and get established.

>Hmmmm... This sounds like an interesting theory, but I'm wondering what could govern the colony's perception of where it stands w/r to its "establishment." The only thing I can think of with enough "history" is the Queen and her pheromones. Unless you consider that the hive or frames or comb could somehow convey the age of a colony to its inhabitants, and these are all influenced by the beekeeper.

If the making of white wax is an indicator (a current theory) and if putting empty comb in the brood nest can precipitate this (which appears to be the case but it would be nice to get more observations on this) then it would appear to be the structure of the brood nest. Gaps in the comb being a lack of "establishment".

>So back to the Queen - if she is replaced each fall, wouldn't this "make" the colony think it was still in "establishment mode" each spring?

Walt says using his methods the bees will supercede her every year anyway, so I would say probably not.

> I wonder if Walt has done any investigation into the impact of the age of the Queen and the display of "establishment mode" behaviour?

Perhaps he will respond to that. But I do know he see his superceded right at the swarm cut off when they decide not to swarm.


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## Walts-son-in-law (Mar 26, 2005)

Here is Walt's response:

MB et. al.,

MB apparently invited my two cents worth. Up front, it should be made clear that I report what I see. If a conclusion is obvious, it might be stated as fact. If not, the conclusion may be offered as a plausible explanation, with the key words I suspect or may be that. I try to make it plain when Im guessing. Answers to the questions about the difference in colony operations between 1st, 2nd, and subsequent years of a colony are not obvious. It is easy to see the difference in objectives of first and third year colonies. But the difference between second and third year colonies has no obvious rationale in what we know about survival requirements. The two main observed differences are:
A.	The second year colonies do not have the storage lull of 3rd and subs.
B.	Second year colonies supersede promptly at repro cut off. SS is sometimes delayed into the main flow for 3rd and subs. 

There may be other differences that have not come to my attention. Changes in colony internal operations are very subtle for the casual peeker-in.

Approaching establishment, the natural swarm will SS. They lift the parent colony with the old queen. The final step to lasting establishment is a new queen. A package will sometimes invoke this safety measure also, to the dismay of the beek. The age of the queen does not appear to me to be relevant to the differences in operation with colony age. All over-wintered colonies strive for reproduction in the spring season. 

I have reported the two observed features above in different ways, but I dont think I have said, point blank, that the differences were an extension of first year establishment. That would be guessing, without enough evidence to support the conclusion. Its just different for unknown reasons. 

Our European bees have survived hard times. They have had some semblance of their current survival format for eons. Somewhere, buried in their genes, is the period where the second year difference in operations was an advantage to survival. We may never learn why. 

Having clearly noted my ignorance on the subject, would you care to speculate for another minute? If not, press on to something more interesting. Survival of the fittest is a recognized technique to improve genetics in any species. 

Most offspring swarms perish in nominal seasons. (More survive in bountiful seasons) In the wild, the parent colony has already demonstrated its skill at establishment by virtue of its existence. During the parent colony lifetime, any offspring swarm that survives is selecting for the right stuff - genetics of species survival. The offspring swarm that survives establishment will, in turn, have its chance to further the selection process through its lifetime. The lifetime of a colony is relatively short in years. Sooner or later, they will misfire on queen replacement and fail. This paragraph is elementary, but is intended to get beginners thinking about survival traits. 

Lets speculate: Today, automatic supersedure of the old queen is automatic, but we dont know that characteristic has always been part of the establishment format. What if failure of the old queen was an element of the format that needed adjustment? The natural selection process could have drifted toward supersedure of queens, if the colony didnt meet second season reproductive swarm requirements. Thats a plausible guess for the automatic supersedure associated with CB/NM. But Im more inclined to suspect the increased brood volume achieved by checker boarding (CB) puts the queen in a strain to keep up. The colony, sensing the queen has trouble with the increased demand, elects to SS at, or shortly after, repro cut off. Pure speculation - and not for general distribution. 

The tendency of the second year colony to store overhead during the lull may be an adaptation to occupying larger cavities. The typical repro swarm can only do so much in their first year of establishment. They do well to build enough comb to store wintering provisions. However, filling the cavity with functional comb is complete establishment. If in the second year there is still empty space in the cavity, they want to fill that space with functional comb.

A conflicting observation is that both second year and subs, develop wax making capability at the same time - a strong three weeks after repro cut off. It would seem reasonable, if the second year were devoted to completing establishment, the colony would develop wax-making capability earlier, just another enigma of survival strategy.

I consider myself a student of colony survival traits. Learning these traits by observation is a slow process. Not only is there great variation from colony to colony, but seasonal influences in forage availability generate additional scatter in the data. 

I dont take sides in the evolution versus creation aspects of those survival characteristics. Both evolution and creation by a super entity are equally incomprehensible to my small brain. But there are latent survival traits in the honeybee survival formal that we have never seen and couldnt guess at the reasons if we did see them.

So much for the I dont know answer.

Walt


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## Dana (Mar 26, 2005)

Seems like if a repro swarm did not issue that wax making would start sooner since none of the potential swarm's wax makers left. Isn't the idea that during the lull is when the colony rears house bees to make wax, process nectar etc? (Also wondering how the removal of brood in a cut down split would effect the number of nectar processors??)

There's so much going on that it's hard to wrap my head around it!

I wonder if a colony started up in a *very* large cavity, how long would it take them to fill it with comb? Would they fail to swarm until it was full? 

Fascinating stuff!

Dana


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

Here's an update of my progress on checkerboarding. Unfortunately I likely won't have much further useful information as I've changed my plans for the year, and am trying to raise some queens right now to make as many hives as I can out of my 6.

I overwintered a colony as a Medium honey > Deep with brood > medium full of pollen. Walt had this description in some of his writings as a good configuration to start the winter with. By the end of January the bottom medium of pollen was completely emptied and the colony was booming for this time of year. Colonies starting bringin in Pollen at this time also. I checkerboarded the now empty pollen super with the top which now had honey and brood. The deep had honey, brood, and some pollen. A cold snap then hit. A month later the colony had brood from top to bottom so I checkerboarded an additional medium on top. 

I went through this colony Saturday and there was brood in all 3 mediums and the deep. Boy is this hive rocking! I went through every frame looking for some larvae the right age to graft, but they were all in last years new honey supers so I couldn't see well on the white plastic foundation. This hive was fairly aggressive, due to its size I believe. I recieved my first, "Your bees stung my baby  !" from my wife  Actually he didn't get stung but she did. Anyway, I'll likely break this hive down if/when I get some mated queens to make lots of hives. I'm out of drawn comb so I'll need to start introducing empty frames when this new cold snap lets up. So I may get some more info, yet.

In my other hives, I moved empty comb into the broodnest at the begining of Febuary. This was prettymuch after the first full week of the bees bringing in pollen. I was worried at first as 2 days after I did this, the temps dropped for about 3 weeks. Lows were in the 20's however the days got warm enough for the bees to break the cluster, and restricted foraging for pollen and nectar to "sporadic". This proved very good results, and did not seem to harm even my weekest hives. I also supered 2 hives 2 weeks ago with empty shallow comb(not checkerboarded) and these were filled with brood.

Hopefully more to come. For what its worth, I'll write something up more clear for the experiment.


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## Walts-son-in-law (Mar 26, 2005)

MB et.al.

Update to my blurb of 19 March 

This season, second year colony expansion of the brood nest through the lull was confirmed. Although retired from investigation beekeeping since 03 when 20 test colonies were sold, this year was stuck with 3 colonies from last year  collected swarms locally as a community service. Had agreed to donate them to the Nashville club for demonstration purposes, but we couldnt get together on when and where until they were too big to move. (Stuck)

There was a hint of late brood nest expansion on packages bought in 03. No bees for two months, but bought a few packs to get some experience with that aspect. Second year packs (04) showed late brood nest growth, but I wrote that off as not paying enough attention to bee/tree development that season. (retired, you know)

This year, I was paying attention. Two weeks after repro cut off wax purging, they were still expanding the brood nest in large segments. Expansion was evidenced by patches of cells at the shoulders of the expansion dome being dried for brood.

At main flow appearance of white wax, (at least 10 days early) brood nest expansion had been terminated. This would lead to the conclusion that second year colonies do expand the brood nest for an extra three weeks. This is consistent with other observations of the manuscript:

1.	Colonies only store nectar during the build up within the cluster perimeter.
2.	Second year colonies add nectar at the top during the storage lull of third and subsequent years.
If the second year colony is increasing cluster size at that time, it would explain increased production of storing overhead during the bull, I can only blame the laid back approach of CB for failing to see this sooner. 

Walt

P.S. MB has noted that we were in for a wacko season this year. Right on the button! Redbud 2 weeks late. Swarm season almost 2 weeks early. Black locust at main flow start? Glad my studies were made during a period when seasons were more consistent. White wax +-3 days of May 1.


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## SERGE (Sep 14, 2010)

Michael, you mention that when opening the broodnest "you can put some empty frames in the brood nest. Yes, empty. No foundation. Nothing. Just an empty frame."
-When opening the broodnest, do frames with foundation not serve the same purpose? Can you please elaborate a little why it is important to not use foundation when opening the broodnest?
Thanks
Serge


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>When opening the broodnest, do frames with foundation not serve the same purpose?

Similar, yes. Same, no. Nothing makes a large gap that is open from one brood comb to the next in which the bees quickly festoon and communication and freely take place. Foundation creates a wall of wax between two brood combs and it appears to me that the communication is not the same and the effect on the bees, while similar, is restrained by this lack of communication.

> Can you please elaborate a little why it is important to not use foundation when opening the broodnest?

I wouldn't say it's "important not to use foundation" but I believe it is "advantageous". You get more the the effect you are aiming for with a large gap with no wall than you do with a wall between.


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## WI-beek (Jul 14, 2009)

I open the brood nest with foundation. I dont have boxes of drawn comb laying around because they are used for splits every spring till all I have left are new frames and foundation. I have not had a problem with any delay of foundation being drawn. In fact in seven or eight day when I come back for an inspection it is often drawn out and full of grubs. I have tried checkerboarding above brood nest but once they start back-filling brood it dont stop anything. I have found once it gets to that point the only thing that will stop them other than splitting the colony is checker-boarding the brood nest it self. Some people freak out about this saying it will disturb the bees too much but I just dont believe it. When you come back a week later to fresh drawn comb full of grubs its seems the queen didnt slow down but speed up. Of course you need enough bees to fill the gaps. 

Just my two cents. Oh, I did read walt saying checkerboarding is less effective on double deep brood chambers because it is harder to break up the honey dome. A deep and medium brood nest is much different.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

Michael Bush said:


> Experiment participants wanted.
> 
> Question:
> Will bees given empty frames in the brood nest shift to "establishment" mode and make white wax well before the normal time and build up more because of more brood nest expansion and tend to not swarm. Will hives produce more/less/as much as when "Checkerboarded".


I tried this in the spring of 2012 and I thought I reported it but not on this thread, but walt let me know that he did hear about it so...

i didn't really run the kind of comparison outlined in the op, but i did find that the bees can and will draw wax before the normal time.

a month before any sign of new wax i put empty frames of foundation in the middle of the broodnest in some colonies and empty foundationless frames in the middle of the broodnest in other colonies.

the foundationless frames were promptly drawn out even though it was a month before any new wax was being seen in any of the other hives. it was drawn out almost 100% drone comb.

the frames of foundation (coated plastic) were ignored and actually hampered build up and had to be relocated to the outside positions of the box.

putting foundationless frames in and around the broodnest may therefore be helpful in swarm prevention by creating new space for the queen to lay and getting the wax makers busy.

i didn't put any foundationless frames in my hives this year because i thought i had enough drawn comb overhead to nectar manage with. i was wrong. i'm considering experimenting again by putting at least one foundationless frame in the broodnest about a month before normal wax in maybe half of my hives.


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## MattDavey (Dec 16, 2011)

I have experimented with both Opening the Broodnest and Checkerboarding and found I prefer a combination of both!

I prefer to Open the OUTSIDE of the Broodnest for the following reasons:

- Inserting new frames inside the Broodnest forces the bees to have to cover a larger area in order to heat the Broodnest. So if bad weather sets in you can have chilled brood. On the outside doesn't.

- If there are not enough bees to completely fill the gaps inside the Broodnest, it's possible that a group of nurse bees could become isolated from the queen and experience lower pheromone levels for a time, causing them to start emergency queen cells. (This is very rare, but I believe it happened to me once, may have been a cold night.) On the outside bees don't get isolated.

- The response to fill the HOLE in the Broodnest is the same even if the new frame is on the outside edge of the Broodnest, with brood only on one side.


Checkerboarding requires drawn comb, which the new beekeeper doesn't have.


So I move each outside frame up into a new box and checkerboard them directly above the Broodnest. Then insert a new frame on each outside edge of the Broodnest. (All frames are the same size.)

The new frames have a strip of foundation as a guide, as they will often build only drone comb before swarm season if the frame is completely foundationless. With the foundation strip it ends up being about 2/3 worker to 1/3 drone comb. (The comb needs support, such as wire, fishing line, or in my case bamboo skewers.)

So thank you both Michael Bush and Walt Wright for your methods. I hope you see it as a complement that I have merged both into one method.


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