[QUOTE=BernhardHeuvel;1443560]Phew, in a nutshell:
(1) In February on a sunny day you shrink the broodnest down to the number of brood combs, that have bees and brood on it. Usually that is 3,5 or 7 frames. Depending on the queen and cluster size. Brood combs, follower board (insulated). Hang the combs with food only behind the follower board. Even if it has bees on it. (But no brood.) Bees will go behind the follower board and transfers the food into the broodnest. This way you create some sort of 'inhive nectar flow' plus you restrict the queen. Also bees are more crowded in the restricted broodnest, which means more warmth and combs get more brood from side to side, bottom to top.
- Intr-o zi insorita din Februarie , restrictionezi dimensiunea cuibului la numarul de rame ce au puiet si albina pe ele . In mod curent gasesti 3 , 5 sau 7 rame . Depinde de matca si de marimea ghemului . Ramele cu puiet si apoi diafragma ( izolata ) . Pune ramele cu hrana doar dupa diafragma . Chiar daca au albine pe ele ( dar nu puiet ) . Albinele vor merge dupa diafragma si vor transfera hrana in cuib creeand astfel un fel de " cules interior " , plus ca restrictionezi matca . Totodata albinele sunt mai aglomerate , fapt ce duce la mai multa caldura pentru puiet . Mai multa cakdura pentru puiet = rame cu puiet de sus pana jos .
Hint: You can best rate the queen during wintertime after they started brooding again. Do notes on how the queen do. It is my prime selection criteria for breeding queens. They have to winter with lots of bees, stores. Half of our honey is made during the early Spring. Mark the weaker and the stronger hives.
- Tip : Poti sa da-i note matcilor in timpul iernii imediat ce acestea au inceput cu puietul iarasi . Ia notite despre cum merg matcile . Este instrumentul principal ce ma ajuta in selectia matcilor pentru prasila . Acestea trebuie sa ierneze cu multe albine si rezerve . Jumatate din mierea noastra este facuta primavara devreme . Marcheaza stupii slabi si pe cei pueternici .
Hint: Keep an eye on winter stores. Once all the stores are eaten up, add more combs with winter stores on it. Some do variations on this. I for example, remove all combs except the brood+bee combs. I throw on the queen excluder right away, and install a package of fondant right above the winter cluster. This way, the bees are getting used to the upward direction, rather than the sideway direction. Also checks on winter stores are easier: pop up the lid, bag empty = new bag of fondant. Done.
Tip : Tine ochii pe rezerva de hrana . Odata ce toata rezerva sa dus , adauga o alta rama cu hrana dupa diafragma ( o scoti pe cea goala ) . Unii lucreaza altfel . Eu , spre exemplu , elimin toate ramele ( cu exceptia celor cu puiet + albina ) . Arunc gratia hanneman peste . pun o punga de fondant chiar deasupra ghemului . In acest fel obisnuiesc albina cu miscarea pe verticala , in loc de cea orizontala . Totodata verificarile sunt mult mai usoare : deschid capacul , punga goala = o punga noua de fondant . Terminat .
(2) Mid to end March all the hives are equalized. The weaker hives receive capped brood combs from the strong hives. The strong hives receive open brood combs from the weaker hives. This way you push the weaker hives by adding capped brood that will emerge soon and does not need to be nursed. Nursing larvae is costly. The strong hives are not weakened by donating the brood, because they get open brood as replacement. The strong hives are strong enough to nurse the open brood.
- Jumatatea spre sfarsitul lui Martie toti stupii sunt egalizati . Cei slabi primesc puiet capacit de la cei puternici . Cei puternici primesc puiet necapacit de la cei slabi . In acest fel stupii slabi sunt impulsionati prin adaugarea de puiet capacit care va ecloza in curand , puiet ce nu necesita a fi hranit . Hranirea puietului este costisitoare pentru un stup . Cei puternici nu sunt slabiti prin donarea de puiet capacit , deoarece acestia au capacitatea de a hrani puietul necapacit , puiet ce vine ca si inlocuitor pentru cel
capacit .
I do a lot of requeening at that time, as Brother Adams advised. All duds get a new queen. I winter many replacement queens in Warré hives. The good queens are taken to the wintering yard, the weak queens are taken out, good queen in cage and candy plug is inserted straight away. The weak queen is taken home to the hive that donated the strong queen. Weak queens still are useful to produce some brood for further use.
- Eu inlocuiesc multe din matci in aceasta perioada , la fel cum fratele Adam a sfatuit . Toti stupii slabi/care nu merg primesc o matca noua . Eu iernez multe matci pentru inlocuiri in stupi Warre . Matcile bune sunt duse la vatra de iernare , matcile slabe sunt scoase afara , matca buna in cusca si introduse imediat . Matcile slabe sunt date stupilor ce au donat matcile bune . Matcile slabe sunt inca capabile si folositoare pentru a produce ceva puiet pentru o folosinta ulterioara .
It is important to equalize the production hives, so all following manipulations are the same for all hives. You better have a raised average instead of few good ones, and many weak hives. So much easier to manage the yards if the hives are all the same.
- Este important ca stupii de productie sa fie egalizati , astfel incat interventiile ulterioare sa fie aceleasi pentru toti stupii . Mai bine sa ai o medie crescuta decat cativa buni si foarte multi slabi . Este mult mai usor sa gestionezi o vatra unde stupii sunt toti la fel .
Give more combs. In case you have a weak hive, no more combs are given. Is it strong and running low on winter stores, add a comb of winter food. Is it strong and able to build new combs, cut off the half of the last comb before the follower board. Bees will draw drone comb on the lower half of that cut comb. The strongest hives get a drone frame. Frame with starter strip. Right before the follower board. Repeat with every inspection: if all combs have eggs: add another frame+foundation between drone comb and broodnest. Repeat until 7 combs in total are reached. Do not add no more. Add one more, you get swarm fever. You find a full pollen comb: chuck it out. Reduce number of combs.
- Adauga mai multe rame . In cazul in care ai un stup slab , nici o rama nu se adauga . Daca este puternic si nu prea are rezerve de hrana , adauga o rama cu hrana . Daca este puternic si capabil sa cladeasca rame noi , taie partea de jos aultimei rame inainte de diafragma . Albina va construii celule de trantir in acea parte a ramei . Cei mai puternici primesc o rama ce are doar o fasie de fagure artificial din ceara de albine pentru a creste acolo trantori . Chiar inainte de diafragma . Repeta acest lucru cu fiecare inspectie . Repeta pana cand se ating cele 7 rame . Nu adauga nici una in plus , Adauga una in plus si vei avea stupi in friguri .
Gasesti o rama plina cu polen : scoate-o afara . Redu numarul de rame .
Rule of thumb: rather than expanding the broodnest, better expand the honey supers!
- Regula : in loc sa maresti numarul de rame in cuib , mai bine mareste spatiul prin caturi ! .
(3) Add honey supers as the nectar flow hits. Not too early, not too late. As said I have the fondant bag in that super. Once I see nectar coming in, I throw out the fondant, and add drawn honey combs. First super has no foundation. Just drawn honey combs. (Before wintering you can let some of the honey combs be drawn in the brood chamber, behind the follower board. In summer. Remove before winter feeding.)
- Adauga caturile pe masura ce culesul incepe . Nici prea devreme , nici prea tarziu . Cum am mai spus , am fondant in acel prim cat . Odata ce vad nectarul ca intra , scot afara fondantul si adaug in acel cat rame cladite . Primul cat nu are FA , ci doar rame cladite . ( in loc sa folositi catul pentru a face spatiu pentru punga de fondant , puteti folosi un podisor cu o parte mai inalta pentru primavara si una mai scurta pentru iarna/vara/toamna ; reversibil ) . Inainte de iernare poti lasa ca ceva rame de cat sa fie cladite in cuib , dupa diafragma . In vara . Scoatele inainte de hranirea de completare .
All the young bees want to draw fresh comb. Give enough foundation in the supers to let them do their thing. In the supers! Fresh combs really satisfies them. Much less swarming. Also Buckfast bees are known to love to store honey in fresh combs (unlike the Carnica bees). Thus the foundation at the top will draw the honey up into the supers, preventing the backflooding of the broodnest with nectar very sufficiently.
- Toate albinele tinere vor sa cladeasca faguri noi . Da-le destui FA in caturi astfel incat acestea sa isi faca treaba acolo . In caturi . Fagurii proaspeti le satisfac . Roirea naturala este mult diminuata . Totodata Buckfastul este cunoscut ca ii place sa depoziteze mierea in faguri proaspeti ( spre deosebire de Carnica ) . Astfel FA din caturile de sus vor atrage albina in acestea , prevenind blocarea cuibului foarte bine .
(4) Start your queen production very early in the season. Produce young queens! Replace 70-80 % of all your hives with young queens as soon as possible = no swarming tendency anymore. By doing this, you can skip swarm controls.
- Incepe sa cresti matci foarte devreme . Produ matci tinere .mInlocuieste cam 70-80 % din matcile batrane sau care nu merg cu matcu tinere cat mai curand posibil = fara tendinte de roire dupa aceea . Facand asta poti scapa de controlul roirii .
(5) Before a particular flow starts, I go through all the hives. Open the lid, remove the one super that I leave on after extracting, push combs apart in the middle of the nest: take out one center comb. I find a dud, I will place a split right in the middle of that hive. Bees, brood and a young queen will solve almost all problems. Troubleshooting is the most time consuming thing in beekeeping, so I completely stopped fixing things. If there is an issue, I take a split and push it into the trouble maker. Fixed.
- Inainte de un anumit cules , verific sumar toti stupii . Descid capacul , dau la o parte catul ce il las dupa ce am extras , imping ramele spre margine din mijlocul cuibului : scot o rama centrala . Daca gasesc un stup necomform , introduc un roi in mijlocul acelui stup . Albinele , puietul si matca tanara vor rezolva aproape orice problema . Rezolvarea problemelor este lucrul ce ia cel mai mult timp in apicultura , asa ca am incetat sa mai stau sa rezolv problemele pierzand timp . Daca este vre-o problema , introduc un roi in stupul cu probleme si gata .
For this I move the combs to the left and right, leaving a gap in between for three to five combs of the split. Old queen removed. Split inserted, done. Of course you need a special yard that is designated for split production only. Always have enough splits and heaps of queens at hand. I run 60 hives for split production all the time. Hives have 12 combs. Take out three to five combs and the queen for a rescue split. Replace with foundation and a young queen from a mating nuc. Feed!
- Pentru asta mut ramele in stanga si dreapta , las un spatiu intre pentru 3-5 rame ale roiului . Matca batrana scoasa . Roiul introdus si gata . Desigur ca ai nevoie de o vatra special destinata doar producerii de roiuri . Intotdeauna sa ai destule roiuri si matci la indemana . Eu am 60 de stupi doar pentru producerea de roiuri intotdeauna . Stupii au 12 R . Scoti 3-5 rame si matca pentru roi . Inlocuiesti cu FA si o matca tanara dintr-un nucleu de imperechere .
I don't do any swarm controls anymore. Just before the next flow starts one short inspection. It has brood, eggs, queen and all combs have brood: supers are given. I find a hive that somehow struggles: swarm cells, no queen, not all combs having brood, lots of pollen and so on: split inserted. Supers given. Done. You get a lot of honey of those hives that have splits inserted. Just do it right before the next flow hits.
- Nu mai fac verificari pentru a stopa roirea . Chiar inainte de culesul urmator , fac o scurta inspectie . Daca are puiet , oua , matca si toate ramele au puiet : caturile sunt puse . Daca gasesc un stup cu probbleme : botci , fara matca , nu toate ramele au puiet , mult polen si asa mai departe : un roi este introdus . Caturile sunt puse . Gata . Vei obtine foarte multa miere de la acei stupi care au avut introdus un roi . Doar fa-o chiar inainte de culesul urmator incepe .
Transporting splits.
- Transportand roiuri .
Lots of brood, nectar, pollen and a young queen.
- Mult puiet , nectar si o matca tanara .
Hive in trouble: make a gap
- Stup cu probleme .
Insert split.
- Roi introdus .
Three combs of capped brood: 15,000 bees emerging soon. 3-6,000 adult bees already on the combs. That boosts the hive and no honey is lost. Productivity is secured.
- Trei rame de puiet capacit : 15,000 de albine ce vor ecloza . 3-6,000 de albine adulte deja pe rame . Asta va impulsiona stuul cu probleme iar recolta nu va fi periclitata . Productia este asigurata .
(6) End of season I remove all brood from the production hives except one comb of brood. Rest is filled up with foundation. (12 combs.) Feed and treat. Old queen thus has one comb of open brood and all foragers. All failing old queens are replaced with splits. (I know it starts to get boring to have only one answer to all the problems in beekeeping. :shhhh:)
- La sfarsitul sezonului scot tot puietul din stupii de productie cu exceptia unei rame cu puiet necapacit / puiet capacit . Restul este umplut cu FA ( 12 rame ) Hraneste sintrateaza . Matca batrana si puietul necapacit va avea toate culegatoarele . Toate matcile batrane cu probleme sunt inlocuite cu roiuri . ( Stiu ca incepe sa devina plictisitor sa ai o singura solutie pentru toate problemele din apicultura ) .
Brood combs are distributed to other apiaries to make new splits with young queens, making a lot of spare hives. Three combs per split. Fill with foundation, feed and treat. Alternatively, if you don't want to increase or sell splits, you can pool the brood, add queen pheromones, let it emerge, treating during hatching, make package bees, or add the treated bees back to strengthen weaker wintering hives.
- Ramele cu puiet sunt distribuite catre alte vetre pentru a face alte roiuri cu matci tinere , facand astfel mult stupi de rezerva . 3 rame per roi . Umple cu FA , hraneste si trateaza . Daca nu vrei sa maresti numarul de stupi sau sa vinzi roiuri , poti sa pui puietul in cateva cutii ( turnuri ) , sa adaugi feromoni de matca , sa il lasi sa eclozeze , sa tratezi in timp ce exlozeaza , sa faci roi la pachet sau sa adaugi albinele tratate altor stupi pentru ai intari in vederea iernarii .
(7) End of summer, when you break up all your mating nucs, you remove 2 brood combs and 2 honey combs from each hive, making one new hive from two hives. Add the spare queens. All hives are wintered on 8 combs then. Feed the last time of the year after that. So all bees can settle for winter. Winter strong hives only.
- La sfarsitul verii , cand desfiintezi toti nucleii de imperechere , iei 2 rame cu puiet si 2 rame cu miere din fiecare , facand un stup nou din fiecare dintre acestia . Adauga matcile ce ti-au ramas . Toti stupii sunt iernati in 8 rame atunci . Hraneste pentru ultima data in an . Astfel incat albinele sa se pregateasca de
iarna . Ierneaza doar stupi puternici .
To reduce the material used, I use divider boards to make 2 splits per hive/brood chamber. More or less this is the very first step into 2 queen hives. Winter two colonies in one brood chamber.
In Spring you use the good queens/colonies in one brood chamber only. Run the weaker queens as 2 queen colonies. This is easy, just put two colonies divided in one brood chamber, let them settle for some weeks. Add a queen excluder and a honey super, preferably wet with honey, to start the 2 queen colony. It produces at least the same amount of honey as your strongest single queen hive. Extra queens can be pulled to start mating nucs or for starting new splits. (I start all hives, including mating nuts and splits with mated and laying queens. Once the broodnest is stabilized, queen is pulled and ripe queen cell given.)
Ca sa reduc din inventar , folosesc o diafragma totala pentru a pune 2 roi pe cutie . Mai mult sau mai putin acesta este primul pas pentru a avea stupi/cutii cu 2 matci . Ierneaza doua colonii intr-o cutie . In primavara folosesti colonia buna singura pe cutie iar stupii mai slabi cate doi in cutie . Asta este usor , doar pune doua colonii intr-o cutie , si lasa-le sa se aseze pentru cateva saptamani . Adauga o gratie hanneman si un cat , de preferat proaspat extras , ca sa pornersi stupii 2 in 1 . Produce cel putin cat cat cea mai buna matca a ta . Matcile in plus pot fi folosite pentru a porni nucleii de imperechere sau pentru roiuri . ( Eu pornesc toti stupii , inclusiv nucleii de imperechere si roii cu matci imperecheate ce oua . Odata ce cuibul sa stabilizat , matca este scoasa si este data o botca . )
Do run 2 queen hives with four combs per queen, no more. You add more combs, you get swarm fever. I fill the rest of the space with double frame feeders.
- Foloseste 2 matci pe cutie , fiecare matca cu maxim 4 rame . Daca adaugi o rama in plus , ai sa aimstupi in friguri . Eu umplu restul spatiului cu hranitoare duble ( 2 rame ) .
Making a two queen hive from weaker colonies at Springtime.
- Facand un stup cu 2 matci / cutie in primavara din stupi mai slabi .
Hive body and floor is divided by a divider board.
- Soclul si corpul sunt impartite in doua de o diafragma totala .
It makes two chambers of one brood chamber.
- Ramane o cutie cu doua cuiburi intr-o cutie mare .
Notice the divider board extends above the top of the box. Thus the inner lid will be closed tight enough to keep the queens separately.
- Observa ca diafragma se extinde pana deasupra corpului . Astfel podisorul va inchide foarte bine incat sa tina matcile separate .
There is one slat in the bottom, with a groove that holds the divider board in place. It also keeps the 2 queens away from each other, which would pass through the bottom to fight the other queen. Note that the slat extends out of the entrance. Queens do run a little outside to reach the other broodnest.
- Mai este si o bucata in partea de jos ce iese pe urdinis , tinand diafragma fixa . In acest fel matcile sunt inute una departe de cealalta . Matcile ies cateodata pana la urdinis pentru a trece in cealalta parte a cutiei in celalalt cuib .
Frame feeders, double frame size.
- Hranitoare duble .
One could make three compartments out of one brood box (four frames x 3 = 12 frames) – but I found it a bit fiddly to prevent the queens from running over to the other broodnest. The feeders keep them apart very well. Also you have some space to move frames a little.
- Unii ar putea sa tina 3 colonii per cutie , dar mi se pare cam migalos sa incerci sa tii matcile una departe de cealalta atunci cand inspectezi . Hranitoarele tin matcile departe una de cealalta , plus ceva spatiu sa misti ramele .
Ready to receive splits. One food comb, one frame+foundation per compartment. Now insert two brood combs and a queen.
- Cutie pregatita sa primeasca un roi . O rama cu mancare , una cu foita pe compartiment . Acum baga doua rame cu puiet si o matca imperecheata .
They sometimes do. But that is a
good thing (add on list by Fusion). Because that buffers the wild emotion the bees have at that time.
You don't get burr comb, if you keep ahead adding supers with some foundation. But if you come too late, they build burr comb behind the follower board. Way better than shutting down broodnest and swarm. Burr comb next to the follower board is a sign of a strong flow. You get a bit mad on removing all the burr comb when you start keeping bees in Dadant hives, but once you get, when to add more supers, this phenomena will be reduced to almost zero. Just keep on learning. The hive buffers beekeeper's mistakes well enough.
- Cateodata fac asta . Dar acest lucru este un bun . Deoarece asta estompeaza emotiile pe care le au la acel moment albinele . Dar daca vii prea tarziu , vor cladi faguri naturali in spatele diafragmei . Mult mai bine decat sa se opreasca cu puietul si sa roiasca . Fagurii naturali in spatele diafragmei sunt un semn al unui cules bun . Vei fi putin nervos ca trebuie sa tai toti acei faguri cand incepi sa lucrezi cu stupul Dadant , dar odata ce vei invata vand sa adaugi caturile , acest fenomen se va reduce catre aproape zero . Doar invata in permanenta . Stupul acopera greselile apicultorului destul de bine .
Usually there is enough nectar and pollen in the brood chamber until you get to the next honey flow. I move my hives from flow to flow, as soon as possible. Also they get out all the rest of the extracted but still wet honey supers, that I give back very soon. If you want to be very sure, you can add a new super
under the ready to harvest supers at the end of the flow. They partly fill this super then and can live from it for a while.
- De obicei este destul nectar si polen in cuib pana ajungi la celalalt cules . Eu imi mut stupi din cules in cules , cat mai repede cu putinta . Totodata acestia primesc restul de miere din caturile extrase pe care le dau inapoi cat de curand . Daca vrei sa fii foarte sigur , poti adauga un cat nou sub cele pe care vrei sa le recoltezi chiar inainte ca acest cules sa se termine . Ele vor umple partial catul cu miere , avand ce manca o vreme .
Well, at least in Germany the "Dadant modified" means the Brother Adam hive. Dadant Blatt is Dadant Blatt, as far as I know.
- Cel putin in Germania Dadantul modificat inseamna stupul fratelui Adam . Dadantul blat este Dadant Blat din cate stiu eu .
Better read what Dadant himself wrote on frame spacing.
- Mai bine citeste ce a scris insusi Dadant despre spatierea ramelor .
Dadant System of BeekeepingC. P. Dadant => Son of Charles Dadant
http://www.three-peaks.net/PDF/Dadant%20System%20of%20Beekeeping%201920.pdfYou will find interesting hints there. What you can do with a Brother Adam hive (12 frame Dadant) you can't really do with any other hive. Of course you can improvise here and there, but that never will lead to the results, the Dadant hive delivers: Least work, best results.
- Vei gasi cateva idei interesante acolo . Ceea ce poti face cu stupul fratelui Adam ( 12 rame Dadant ) nu poti face cu nici un alt stup . Desigur ca poti improviza pe ici pe colo , dar nicodata nu vei ajunge la resultatele pe care stupul Dadant le livreaza . Mai putina munca , rezultate mai bune .[/QUOTE]