Single Brood Chamber Management: Why I Switched

Single brood chamber managment is not new, but it is growing in popularity and for good reason. This video will highlight both the advantages and disadvantages of moving to a system of restricting the queen to only a single deep brood box to use as her brood nest. While this seems to go against conventional wisdom that suggests 2 deeps are needed especially in cooler climates for the queen to have enough room to lay, we show why this isn't the case.
If you have thought about moving some of your colonies to single brood chambers follow us on this journey with this first video on the advantages and disadvantages of this management style.
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[@brianwinslow9967]

I read an article from Megan Milbrath showing data about overwintering survival rates and single deeps doing better than double deeps. I’ve overwintered colonies in singles quite successfully in Zone 5. Depending on the colony and my goals they can remain single deeps with supers or expand into a double which can be split in late summer to overwinter as 2 singles. I love managing this way. Thanks for the video.

[@BeekeepingUniversity]

Thanks for the comment! Megan Milbrath does great work, I'll have to look for that data. Glad to hear you are having success with it. I'm excited to see how this season (and winter) goes but I am liking everything about it so far. Happy Beekeeping Brian!

[@redbaron8989]

Great info! I was wondering what percentage of the brood box is typically stored honey in say September? Have you ever inspected the bottom (brood box) in September? Please keep these videos coming!!

[@Russ92]

I'm a backyard beekeeper in Northern California with 6 beehives and 4 years of experience. Last year, I still had 4 beehives, but I switched two of them to single brood chamber. The two single chamber hives were just as strong and brought in just as much honey by the end of the honeyflow. After successful overwintering, I added two more splits and switched the rest to a single chamber, totaling 6 beehives. There were a number of reasons why I decided to switch, but the most important was the mite treatments. They're ridiculously expensive, and with one brood chamber, you pretty much half the cost.

[@williamhesbach4072]

Great introduction with clear reasoning. Thanks!

[@rstlr01]

Done single brood for the last Two years after watching university of Guelph. Has made my summer beekeeping at least four times easier for inspecting with no drop off in Honey production compared to previous years. Is great only having to inspect one box for Brood and treatments in zone 5a.

[@SuperSjodin]

That’s how I did mine this last winter, excited to see the outcome.

[@BeekeepingUniversity]

I hope you find great results! Happy Beekeeping!

[@Danielseven-ir2mq]

Here in Denver zone 6a will be trying single brood chamber management. Lots of pros. You just need to be more attentive ( input ) to the hives. Thank you.

[@badassbees3680]

Kamon just started single brood cause Daddy Ian suggested it ...

[@beebob1279]

So, I'm looking for your videos as you progress through the new single hive program. I can't find them

[@dcsblessedbees]

As I see it, it's just a style choice, but a great explanation and walk though.👍

[@BeekeepingUniversity]

You are right, there are many ways to keep bees for sure. I have been loving this so far. I have done splits and requeening since switching to single chamber and I have loved how easy it has been to inspect the brood nest and find the queen. So far I'm loving it, more videos will follow. Thanks for the kind words! Happy Beekeeping!

[@Lsmith-ly2cm]

Where are you located? Trying to figure your climate. thank you good video

[@dennistaylor7653]

I'm hoping this will be a 'how to' series.

[@BeekeepingUniversity]

We will be having a series of videos on single brood chamber management so we hope you will keep an eye out for them. First will come.out soon on how to set up colonies for this management style. Thank you and happy beekeeping!

[@lenturtle7954]

And you have a lot less bees to look thru

[@Stephenvguerra]

I changed to all single brood in Zone 8 in Texas. I kept a supper full of honey on top of each of the hives. Should I have not done that?

[@PatyJ66]

If using all medium 8 frame boxes, would you consider the equivalent would be two 8 frame mediums for brood?

[@StanGore-mk8ow]

question....when you put a queen excluder on....and bottom deep keeps filling up what are you doing with pollen and nectar. i know you pull honey frames and put those frames in honey super above queen excluder .....what are you doing with pollen and nectar frames

[@lenturtle7954]

If you dont want to collect a lot of honey like for polinating singles are great . But a 2 or 3 deep hive will collect 200 plus pounds each year

[@harrypapadopoulos4891]

Or you can do the Demaree method

[@bbahlmann1290]

So what happened with your switch to singles? You never reported on health and honey production or anything for that matter.

[@billchriswell2925]

So how'd it end up?

[@stefanwyss5495]

I wonder why nobody in the us works with Dadant. That would be the simple answer to all this discussions.

[@arronbwabw504]

Did anybody tell the bee's they're not allowed to store in the brood box when they did those maths!?!

[@lenturtle7954]

IMHO Yes 2 frames of feed 2 frames of feed pollen and brood 6 large frames of brood and an excluder sounds like a tiny non productive hive to me . Its for hobby beekeepers not production bulk commercial beekeepers .

[@scotthenderson4376]

The math works but whats not is if there not taking the honey up then there packing it around her and they swarm. Just adding a super doesn't mean they'll use the space the way you want. In the spring you have to be on it and move frames up in another deep to prevent swarming or make splits. All comes down to having enough bees to move the honey up and are they doing what you want or whats easy for them.

[@user-eh7nr9mk6l]

single brood chamber is best combined with 2 (insulated) follower boards together in sum in width of one frame = 9 frames + 2 follower boards then you can adjust the colony size according to cluster size = even more honey because they put max energy into supers! that's what continental professional do := less work, better honey crop more colonies 1 man can handle