Single brood chamber management with a twist

This is a great way to boost both your number of hives and your honey production and not blowing out the queen in her first year. The "twist" is that each nuc is confined as if it were a single brood chamber but two nucs share a communal honey storage space. This technique makes lots of honey, saves on equipment, keeps the queen relatively fresh for next year, and usually leads to two nucs ready to grow next season.

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Great vid ! This is a great way to build out nucs which manages that summer time work load. The honey collection kinda covers the costs of building the nuc… pure profit! All that’s required is time . Thx for the shoutout Cheers!

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Thanks Ian, Your influence is greater than you know!

[@collegeguy14]

Thank you both for taking the time to share. We enjoy the videos down here in Kentucky. We are going to have to give it a try next year! Thanks again

[@woodlandharvesthoneycompanyllc]

I was catching up on some of your older videos and saw this one. Wow, is all I can saw. So genius, using the strength of two queens to increase the workforce size to increase productivity. Of course I have questions. I know you said some of the nucs were from swarms. Did you make splits from some your full hive body hives to start the other nucs? When were the nucs started? The date shown on the vid was June 14, so were the nucs you were using started earlier from splits? Also, when the honey flow is over do you keep them as nucs or put them in a 10 frame?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

@@woodlandharvesthoneycompanyllc They were about 4 weeks old...mostly new splits which were not sold. They are all still in 5 frame nucs and will be overwintered that way. (2 nucs over double deeps), see earlier video done last year.

[@mitchellcampbell3521]

I sure are glad that you take time out and try to learn us beginners how to bee keep. Thanks alot.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Lets me think about what I am doing!

[@TheBaconWizard]

Wait, so not only is this a double-queen method using nucs which is an inspired idea imo, but did I understand you correctly from another comment, that this also largely deters swarming?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

It is a low maintennance way to keep nucs from swarming, as apposed to keep on going in and taking out frames of brood to keep them nuc sized.

[@TheBaconWizard]

@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer Thank you. This is groundbreaking.

[@TSIRHCSEVAS]

I just did exactly the same thing except I put empty frames sprayed with some sugar syrup on the super. I did that because I don’t have drawn comb frames to put in the super. The nucs have 80% brood each. Do you think I should take some frames of brood from the nucs and exchange them with the empty ones/foundation already in the super?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

You can move some I would say

[@jimwaldele9084]

how do you stop or control them from swarming , seems your lower box will be over crowded with capped broad in a few weeks,, what happens when your queens dont have any cells to lay in,,, thank you for all your knowledge i have learn much from your videos,,

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

As long as you dont do it too early in the Spring she just fills those 5 frames with brood and the Surplus energy of the colony goes into honey production.

[@mattparks1225]

When did you start those nucs? Saw a lot of burr comb like they had been in awhile. Do you move up brood to keep them from swarming and replace with empty comb? Lastly (sorry so many questions) are you having to go in every 5-7 days to check for queen cells? Great videos

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

About 3-4 weeks and yes they need to be thinned or transferred once full.

[@johnbarlow5835]

I have two boxes of bees 2 deeps and a honey super they are making honey not capping it they are eating it what should I do

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Often have that happen here when we go into the dearth. They have a super almost full but not capped (not quite cured) then the dearth starts and they eat it up. You could remove it and feed sugar syrup in times of shortage....not bad for the bees at all and saves many $

[@russellkoopman3004]

To extent the width of my excluder I put duct tape on the bottom rail extended out just enough so I could double it back onto the top rail of the excluder. Not sure how long it will hold up it seems to for a year or two. I cut off a couple of nuc boxes to make them into a super. It can work if you have time to play around a bit.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

they glue that little bit of wood in pretty quick.

[@bligon11]

Don’t you want to make sure the queens are there?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

No with experience you can tell just be looking if the colony is queen right (most of the time)

[@bligon11]

@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer I hope I get that good at making those decisions! I'm still a newbie!

[@jacksparrow1292]

I did that with some of my Nucs, but I put one entrance one way & I turned the other entrance in the opposite direction. Does that matter?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

That would probably be better!

[@jacksparrow1292]

@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer thanks for the video & the good information.

[@benjamindejonge3624]

Do you clip the queens? We in Europe have that trandesy you know

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Generally no I do not.

[@daisyshoney6021]

Do you let the Nuc go in single hives for the winter?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Last year I did with some, and others I overwintered as a nuc. Had about 90% survival in both.

[@kennylecroy9706]

When winter comes do you keep the 10 frame super on or do you keep them in the 5 frame hives ?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Most are still in 5 frame nucs some were upped to ten frames.

[@garycutright1200]

Do you treat

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Yes usually several times per year.