Checkerboarding beehives - The First Manipulation

This is the first manipulation for beekeeping swarm control method using Walt Wright's Checkerboarding technique. Filmed in December 2021 at the apiaries kept by John White and Jon Owens in West Berkshire.
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[@goshawkfoxhill]

Great video and I really enjoyed I think it was John white’s talk on this subject at thornes last week they extolled Walter wright for for working out this method.

[@govindchetan]

Can we checkerboard with undrawn frames? I know it's going to take some time for bees to draw the comb and start storing honey in them but for swarm prevention, will the undrawn frames do the trick?

[@lowinterventionbeekeeping5408]

It is far higher risk with foundation. We have known people checkerboard with foundation and the bees draw it ready for the flow and it works. But if a colony is prolific and generates a large population of foragers, coupled with is a strong nectar flow then the chances of the bees running out of storage and drying space increases - potentially resulting in backfilling and queen cells. So in all honesty: the results with drawn comb are reliable, but variable with foundation. With foundation, it is a race to draw comb before the incombing nectar overwhelms the capacity of the colony to process it outside of the brood nest. We are about to publish some videos of the first full inspections to provide an insight into how a checkerboarded colony builds up in the spring, and it is always amazing how quickly they can fill 3 deep brood bodies with wall to wall brood by mid April...... Most of us (that are first time checkerboarders) run colonies without queen excluders to generate huge amounts of brood comb ready for checkerboarding the following year.

[@govindchetan]

@@lowinterventionbeekeeping5408 thank you very much for your response. I look forward to watching the next video you publish! 🙏