Beekeeping | When Do You Add Another Box To Your Hive? Too Late, Swarm. Too Soon, Straight Up.

As your new hive expands your bees need room to grow. But if you give them too much room by adding a box too soon, the bees may not fill out the frames much beyond the center frames. But if you wait too long your bees may become crowded and swarm after just a few weeks from installation. Timing is everything. In today's video I'll give you a special tip on how to speed up the process of helping your bees expand into an upper box and I'll show you how well it works in just12 hours.
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[@Mindcrackr]

First of all: thank you for making content. I enjoyed binge watching most of your videos and didn't know bees are so interesting. Keep up the good work and greetings from across the world (The Netherlands)! Answers: Question 1: I think the larvae are tended to approximately 7.200 times during their larval state. I came to this conclusion because I think a (different) bee would visit every minute to check up on them. A quick calculation would be: 60 times per hour * 24 hours a day (larvae signal for food continuously) * 5 days. Question 2: How much food they consume in relation to their own size? I think the size of a larvae in their larval state increases significantly to about 1.500 times their original size.

[@beek]

Awesome Paul, and thank you so much, I appreciate your kind words.

[@stansmith4054]

Beekeeping for many years. Taught by my grandpa in Rhodesia and now here in the US. What I've learned is, you are a day late, you're screwed. You are a day early, you are screwed. Bees are going to do what they do when they want to do but sometimes we get lucky!

[@terradeloach8540]

I have been binge watching your channel. I am getting my bees this month and I have swarm traps out. I am so excited

[@beek]

Nice Terra, sounds like you are ready to roll. You've got the buzz!

[@jingles1963]

Great T-shirt! laughing out loud.. :D Thanks for your videos David!

[@jenniferwinstead5611]

Thank you for your help. After overloading on information I started to forget what I needed to do when my bees out grew their hive and I needed to add another box. The step by step was helpful and I’m glad I got to actually watch how to do this. So thank you for all your help. I hope that I do this correctly

[@beek]

Glad to help

[@HenrikLarssonArt]

Thanks for all your videos and content, i am sitting with pen and notebook when i am watching them, and putting down notes. I am finally starting up my first hive this summer - I even bought your beekeeping Inspection Guide ..Cheers from Sweden.

[@beek]

Good for you and I'm excited for you!

[@mshanklin11]

We are new to beekeeping this year, and with the help of our beekeeping club and your videos, our hive appears to be doing quite well. We added a second deep and they are working on it as well as continuing to work on the last few frames in the first deep. We are so concerned with doing things right, and your videos have helped us to avoid many beginners mistakes, and no doubt will continue to do so. We appreciate you and Sherri very much. Oh, and let Sherri know that we made the Honey Glazed Carrots from your book and they were DELICIOUS! We look forward to trying some of the other recipes as well Thank you to both you and Sherri for sharing your knowledge! Our bees thank you, too. :)

[@donaldfamilyadventures2795]

You’re my go to 🐝 guy! Thank you for helping us amateurs.

[@ronslanczka8941]

I would say for the first it would be 6500 times for a worker, and 6500 times for a queen and then 9100 times for a drone. Then for 2 1570 time there mass. Thanks David for the info you give out on your youTube videos

[@jeronimomod156]

I clicked the like button and hit subscribe 👌 I'm going to start beekeeping next spring. Right now in the winter months I work on salvaging lumber from 100 plus year old barns in Ohio. Thinking about using some of the scraps of hardwood boards to make my boxes ☝🏽 so one day I will have to leave them in a will 🤣👌 keep making these videos bro 👌💝💝💝

[@diannemiller4754]

Good evening David, I watched this video almost two years ago. I like the practice of putting a frame of larvae into the box you are adding. As I watched this video for the second time today, I asked myself how when watching two years ago that I missed your idea of adding some encouragement for the bees. My two nucs are almost three weeks old. Due to a nasty summer cold, I'm having to go very slowly. I'm still getting my energy back after almost a week. I'm praying that I haven't stressed the bee's out too much. Question: Should I try to check for mites when I add on another box or wait for another week or two? Question #2: Should I add my green drone cone to the new boxes? This video came up just in time to watch before adding another box. Thanks, David and Sheri, for all you do for your followers.

[@anthonyc9911]

First answer 100x a day. Nurse bees visit and feed. Second answer 10x it's weight until it gets capped. Love you videos. Wish everyone the best of luck winning a class!

[@lianaburless1835]

Just getting into the idea of wanting some bees for the past couple years. I realized as I was growing things I was having trouble cuz not a lot of bees come around my area at all so things weren't growing so well. I realize how important it was going to be for me to see about getting some bees especially if I get some land and want to grow in a bigger bigger area. So lately, working with UPS, ship a lot of bees in the mail and I was like trying to find out how much it even order bees and how I'd even go about raising bees. So this is been pretty interesting.

[@mikefortney7879]

Another super video. Dave’s knowledge and willingness to produce high quality videos is greatly appreciated by us newbies. Spread the word so he can keep them coming.

[@arthurdiani4780]

Nurse bees make about 10,000 visits to a larvae, and the weight increases about 1000 times the weight of an egg. Thanks for you videos. Second year bee keeper and learning a lot!

[@davidlopata7532]

I love your informational videos. I just got two 3lb. packages on May 19. I never had bees before but I'm learning along the way. Thank you for all your information

[@beek]

Best of luck David and enjoy your bees!

[@michaelmueller4946]

I’ve learned a bunch from you David. I try to pass on what I learn. I appreciate your efforts.❤️✝️

[@beek]

I appreciate that

[@olkusiva]

Just got my first two families and one of them seems real strong so perfect video for me right now! Subscribed for more.

[@beek]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@WildwoodsBeekeeping]

Hello David, I’ve been watching your videos for a long time, learning a lot, love the online classes🐝

[@beek]

Awesome and so nice of you to say.

[@bryanpratt5850]

Funny shirt at the beginning, thanks for the info, God bless you!

[@trevormcnutt9756]

Newbee here , the info is timeless I've learned what the meaning of several things meant with langstroth very quickly. I plan on taking your master class in time. If you still read these my question would be ... Why do we keep building the langstroth hives so poorly? (Rev. Long. Might be disappointed...) Have you experimented with altering hives? That would make a cool video Thanks for all your experience you share. From Colorado to Florida bee hives with love

[@leshamilton6657]

I have no idea...I'm a new beekeeper...that's why I need the course 😍🐝

[@paddywilkinson8668]

Learnt a lot, many thanks, very well presented. I’ve signed up! Paddy.

[@williamcross8343]

They are visited about 1300 times a day, I've been told. Their weight increases upto 1500 times from egg weight. I'm not sure what that equates to in amount of food. I've already learned alot from your videos abd would love the whole class I hope I haven't been mislead on some of the facts I've recieved from others.

[@magdymetwally9008]

Your shop look really great, it has that old Tim looks

[@2401lani]

Thank you for this vid!! I just added another box and this helped soooo much 🤗

[@davefrankman6181]

I miss hive talk with David and Jon!

[@beek]

Good ole Hive Talk with David and Jon. Wow, Jon and I still talk alot, and boy we need to do that!

[@spencerschano2152]

I’m going to take a guess because the beekeeping class sounds amazing! Since the worker bee is larval form for roughy 5 days, and I guess there are a couple thousand visits per day, a total of 10,000 visits to the larvae. For part two, I’m going to guess 2000 times the mass of a larvae is fed over the course of development, but I am totally guessing. I don’t comment a ton, but I love the videos and channel!

[@stephenjacksonjr]

I am a new Bee Honey maker. Up State New York. (summit) will be getting a 5 frame of Nuc this spring. duo let the Queen bee to the sugar water. Starting out slow.

[@pirateprospecting707]

Long time viewer. Great video and thanks for sharing all the info as always ✅😁👍🏴‍☠️

[@beek]

I appreciate you being a long time viewer.

[@alexislowery5025]

I had read and have heard many others say not to add the second deep box until 80% of the bottom is filled up. Your 5 frames 100% is this different or if those initial 5 are good and filled out they will have started other frames as well. Thank you for the clarification.

[@arthurdiani4780]

You are lucky you have frames with some comb to put in your upper deep to attract lower bees. New keepers only have blank wax frames. Looking forward to when I will have that resource for my hive additions. This seems to be true for adding honey supers also...hopefully next year!

[@beek]

That's true, but it still helps to move a lower frame that has open brood up, as it will cause the bees to draw out the other combs in the top deep sooner.

[@gerrydertinger7447]

David, Say for a super, once you get the middle 5 drawn out and mostly filled, can not checkerboard the outside frames in and thus encourage the bees to draw them out, say if you add another super b/c they completed your requisite 5 middle frames?

[@pamtewes5276]

You read my mind this morning!

[@williamchastain9510]

Same here

[@beek]

Thanks Pam and William

[@sandrapalmer-snellin2705]

Starting BeeKeeping in the UK but you are really giving detail that is brilliant. Thank you David. Sandra UK

[@beek]

Thank you Sandra

[@TJSmith757]

Thanks!

[@randykretchmer4481]

Thanks for sharing Iam new to beekeeping

[@joncon8674]

Hi Dave the larvae are visited over 15000 times and feed about 7500 times during the week.

[@Lsmith-ly2cm]

thank you for the quick rely.

[@beek]

No problem

[@stevenmartin4111]

HEY DAVE GOT YOUR BOOK GREAT

[@bradgoliphant]

Hello David . I need your help with a couple question and thought of you. You seem to have a lot of experience and I trust you with these questions. I also help they help other beekeepers. Thank you. 1. Do bees instinctually know to head home asap when rain storms are coming? I ask this because for the last three weeks here in NY, we have had periods two days of sunny and 85*, and on the second day--and all the sudden; like in 10 mins time, the sky opens up and downpours. I'm concerned I am loosing a lot of my girl. 2. My bees are new. They are going on 7 weeks old now and are super strong workers and very sweet--8 frames of natural drawn comb in 7 week!!!!!!!! Lots of pollen and already lots of capped honey. Yet, there is close to zero propolis. Are the bees waiting for hotter weather? Just last week we starting climbing out the the 50s and 60s and into the high 80s. I'm a tad concerned here as well. Anything you could say on these two questions I would be so very grateful. Thank you so much. Brad

[@beek]

Brad, In the "Bee Movie" Barry B. Benson got caught in the rain and didn't make it home. It is likely that most bees anticipate (hear a storm coming). I've seen bees rush into their hives like a backward swarm, instead of leaving they were pouring into the hive just before it started to rain. Most will be fine. Even if they are caught out in the rain, they will likely take shelter as best as they can, dry off and fly home. Obviously, some are lost no doubt. Propolis depends alot on if the bees need it and how many plants and trees in your area will support bees gathering propolis.

[@bradgoliphant]

@@beek Thank you David. this is helful

[@debbieherbaugh217]

Wow! I’m novice at bee keeping 🐝 I wish I knew the answers cause I need your classes! I have two hives that were started with nucs. One of the hives is booming and the other is looking good but not booming. Five frames, ok. Mine are just working on the the frames that I added. Overwhelmed! I’m not able to see my queens but there is egg and brood! Thanks

[@beek]

Hang in there and keep learning!!

[@sunflowersmiles9880]

Hi David, I hope this finds you well. I’d love to take your course because I’m just starting out with bee keeping on Easter Sunday and it’s been interesting. I’ve been thinking about taking your class for sometime but finances are tight right now. Ok, on with the question. In a few of your videos you mention this but I’m going to say maybe 10,000 or so. Young larva is feed less frequently and younger gets larger amounts of jelly than older ones, the queen is fed more and the foragers are given a good bit.

[@laura199682]

Great video thank you so much. So I wanna grow bees in my backyard because bees are so important. I was watching many videos and it shows up sometimes bees are going in your walls inl your house and doing a lot damage. How can I avoid this? I'm worried about this.

[@dougharris217]

Hi David, love your videos. Very informative. My answers question 1. 1,422, question 2. 50 times their weight. I have started 3 hives this year. One is really strong and one is weak. I have pulled a little recourse from the strong and placed it in the weak one

[@beek]

Thank you Doug for your kind comments. Good luck on your answers.

[@carlparker2120]

I noticed your burns feeding system. Could I use my inner covers to make those?

[@CoffeeNo0b0514]

Answer to question 1 is approximately 10,000. Answer to question 2 is that they are kept in a constant pool of jelly that they eat continuously until a few days before being capped when they are switched to bee bread. They eat enough to grow 1,500x their initial size.

[@pamkleckner9102]

Larvae are attended approximately 10,000 times before being capped. From egg to capping the grow 1,500 times larger.

[@naturalpointofus1706]

When you add another deep, is the bottom deep still occupied? If so wouldn’t that second deep be very heavy to lift it up to inspect the bottom?

[@stephenstarner3171]

Nurse bees visit 11.000 times to feed a developing worker larva. The larva consumes 10 times the size of a larva right before being capped.

[@dgoodhoney3000]

Sir do, 🙏 I manage Africanized bees and hope this suggestion will be helpful, what I do to prevent the bees from getting disturbed by vibration from a vehicle or such machine, I will put a 4" square please of car tire to the bottom corner or under the legs of the stand. You are showing some good seppies which are very helpful in beekeeping thank you for your videos stay healthy 👋.

[@beek]

Good to know! What are seppies?

[@joetripp123]

Q1: nurse bees visit approx 1,300 times a day and larvae stage is 5 days long (7 for Drones) I'd say 1,300 x 5 = 6,500 visits to feed (9,100 for drones). However since they visit more often each subsequent day up till the last day (3,000 visits just the last day alone) the total number of visits is about 10,000. Q2: in relation to their size larvae eat 1,500 times their size in food in those 5 days.

[@jeanettewestover]

🎈

[@leahpfeiffer6608]

Do you always run two deeps? How do you know when to add a deep and when to add a honey super?

[@Crewdog77]

#1 continuously, more than 10,000 times throughout larval development. #2 1500x thank you

[@putrimariam1939]

Thank your information

[@donaldcanada6805]

Nurse bees feed 3 times a day. Larvae consumes 1/4 of there size in food.

[@kareemarsh2977]

awesome video!! I love the editing!

[@beek]

Good to hear from you, Karee! You're one of my best queen grafters ever. You raised so many queens for me.

[@rickelliott821]

40 : 1 for the consumption and as many returns or times as it takes to develop 40 estimated

[@heidibelton4177]

Newbie here. Addicted to your videos. Love your setting. Thank you! how can you tell the difference between capped brood and capped honey?

[@joncon8674]

Love the video great information

[@beek]

Super to hear Jon!

[@EduardoFagundesFerreira]

Love your videos

[@georgeashmore7317]

David, thanks for your videos. I’ve learned so much! Question. In the first hive, you added a new brood box and moved an open brood frame to it to attract nurse bees which I understand. The second hive you moved a capped over brood frame and mentioned it keeps the new box warm. So does it really matter what frame you move up as long as there is activity on it? Thanks! George from SC.

[@beek]

Long as it has bees it should be fine.

[@christopherroop4937]

Thanks for the video 🐝

[@beek]

Hey Christopher I'm just waiting on your Indiana Inspector (DNR) to give the approval for our nucs to cross state lines. So as soon as I hear from her, I'll give you a call.

[@wethepeople536]

Heck yeah, I like your stuff!

[@beek]

Thanks

[@linditajoti668]

Thank you 🙏🏼

[@microtcpip]

Hey David thank you for such great content, very informative and useful. I am also reading your book. I am brand new to this, and I have my girls about 3 weeks. It is June and they are very active and very busy on the center frames. Does it make sense to move the busy center frames towards the side of the box and bring those outer frames to the center? Then, once those "new" center frames are very busy, then add the second deep box? Thank you!

[@brucejarrell5707]

Outstanding

[@themartinzoo]

Answers? 1. 1,300 daily or around 10,000 lifetime---2. up to 10 times their size thanks for the video's

[@radoslawjocz2976]

Good topic

[@beek]

Thanks

[@Shane_Kamphuis]

I am managing one hive consisting of 2 deeps, I currently have a queen excluder separating them. I wanted to take the excluder off but I’m not sure if I should wait for the bottom box to be more filled. If I do take off the excluder, could I move one of my frames with larvae into the top to speed up the expansion of the hive?

[@g10prodriver76]

Should we add the new box on the bottom since that’s what they do in nature build comb top to bottom 🧐

[@beek]

While that does make sense, it seems that a langstroth configuration works better by adding on the top.

[@michaelrosawatkins3928]

Awesome 👍

[@ChrisCanuk]

Thanks for the nice video! Will you do a video on: When do I know when to split a hive? 😇

[@beek]

Thanks, I'll try

[@EM-ey9mm]

Nice content

[@beek]

Thank you!!

[@esthervickers5259]

I always thought that it was a deterrent for the queen to put a honey frame in the brood area and I think that's what I just watched? Could you please explain? Thank you

[@beek]

It's best to place honey filled frame on the edges of the brood area. They'll move it and change it though.

[@wadetarter1198]

Really like your video

[@beek]

Thanks Wade

[@marieellis5605]

Question 1: 1,300 times daily 0r more than 10,000 times throughout larval development. Question 2: Bee larve can eat 5 to 10 times in food compared to its weight or size.

[@loislangley2975]

Nurse bees feed each larvae more than 10,000 times throughout larval development. Within 5 days larvae grows 1500 times their original size.

[@yadagirisucharita]

Quite good, I am from India 👍

[@beek]

Hello from India....I've been there and love it. My reason for being there was not for sight seeing or vacation, but I still enjoyed it.

[@NapFloridian]

Nice T-Shirt

[@gordonmaurer5236]

About 10,000 total visits until the cell is capped and consumption depends on what the end bee is going to be. Are we talking about a worker, a drone or a queen? a guess would be 100 times its weight.

[@chris0895ozone]

Love your shirt!

[@beek]

When I first saw that shirt it took me like 4 seconds of trying to figure it out :) Then, I'm like...oh, I get it.

[@paulhoward822]

What do you think of using ratchet straps to hold hives closed? Our dog knocked a too box off one hive last fall and I put it back together and strapped a couple of susceptible hives. There may be other reasons to strap hives, too.

[@beek]

Lots of beekeepers do that and I have done it before too.

[@1080760]

That first hive sure didnt look like they needed more room yet. Great content and walk tbrew though.

[@scatterbrainedvideos2254]

Approximately 1300 times daily on more than 10,000 times throughout Lavo development more specific on the last day before cell is capped they visit it nearly 3000 times spending a total of nearly 4 and three-quarter hours within the cell. Lindauer(1953) Found that the time that 2785 nurses be spent in rearing one lava from the time of the egg was laid to capping of the cell was 10 hours and 16 minutes and eight seconds. During the first two days after hatching nurse bees continuously supply the tiny larvae with far more food then can be consumed so that the larvae appear to float in the milky white food. During the third day a larvae in a worker cell continues to receive food, but consumes it as fast as it is deposited by the nurse bees. This happens every day of the eight day period from the laying of an egg until it’s full grown larvae is enclosed in the capped cell.

[@josephwilcox6086]

Nurse bee's visit a larvae around 1300 times a day. Close to 10000 times during development. Just before capping them a nursing bee could visit a larvae 3000 times.

[@briancepeda5277]

Love the graphics guys

[@beek]

Thanks

[@rocksummit3375]

7:27 Never "hit" or "bang" the hive when shaking off frames. Bees are aggitated by strong vibration/hits

[@enderbrotherlive1202]

The larvae are fed around 10,000 times a day. I'm guessing they are fed around 1500 times their mass over the entire larval stage.

[@daveeh2930]

love these vids man, how do we know its time to take the second box off, as i have a flow hive, so i leave the supers on all year round. but confused as to when i take second brood box off

[@beek]

According to their website, they want us to drain and remove the flow hive honey super, store it and plastic which I WOULD NEVER DO, as the wax moth and SHB would ruin it, and then they want us to have been running two deeps for brood area all year, or a medium super above the bottom deep. So they want us to over winter with either two brood deeps or one deep and one medium for brood also. I'm going to over winter it in a single deep and see what happens. I'll be feeding it my winter bee kind all winter.

[@bobbebbington5356]

The hive did not appear to be real strong even though it has a lot of brood. I would wait till the frames are capped before moving them up and put a Queen extruder between the boxes. That will multiply the hive quickly and then give the Queen plenty of room to lay without having eggs being layed in your honey super.

[@salembeeman370]

Great job David. Yesterday I went through my hives and found 3 out of four had significant Ants. I put Cinnamon on the top frame in a circle around the hole. Hope that works.

[@beek]

Thank you. Yup, it should help

[@xforcegames3630]

Dave…I love your videos…but at 7:20 you hit that hive SO HARD lol. The bees were probably like “WTF?!”

[@Grinnin1]

Hello David. I would like to try for your course giveaway.. Nurse bees tend to larvae about 10000 times during their life cycle and the larvae grow about 1500 times their original size so and since they don’t expel anything during their development I’m guessing they consume 1500 times their original size.

[@joetripp123]

Hey David, it seems you are splitting the brood nest up with adding in an undrawn comb in the first hive and a honey frame in the second. I thought that was a bad thing to do. Also for that burr comb - I've been storing it in a mason jar for now but eventually I want to melt that down for use. Will the wax and propolis separate from each other? Thanks for always having great content!

[@beek]

An occasional frame here and there is no big deal but it is a good idea to save all wax. Propolis is impossible to separate from wax.

[@rodkirt9273]

I am confused : You are trying to get brood in the second box ? I thought that one deep bottom box was enough to maintain the hive and the other boxes were honey supers ??

[@beek]

Unless you live in the far south, most beekeepers need 2 deeps to overwinter their colonies. So I do need to get my brood into both the top and bottom deep boxes, then add supers above that!

[@DougMcHone]

Would 2 frames moved be better?

[@rose2525bud]

🧡🐝🧡

[@robinfrazier9763]

David why do you sit your add on box on the ground each time . Rob.