Why reverse?

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karen
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Why reverse?

Unread post by karen »

Why reverse? This was a heading in Allen's diary a couple of days ago. His points to do it are:
To spread brood vertically without moving frames
To get the brood spread between two or three boxes in advance of splitting
To get the bottoms of brood frames occupied and drawn
To stimulate the bees to rearrange the stores and make room for brood
To put the feed super on the bottom to get granulated honey out of the brood frames and moved up as liquid feed

I hardly ever reverse and find my hives build up fine. I see one point is "To get the brood spread between two or three boxes in advance of splitting" I assume this is because you split off the whole box. I make up 5 frame nucs so my splits are by the frame not the box.

Another is "To stimulate the bees to rearrange the stores and make room for brood". When dandelions bloom I do sometimes manipulate a few frames to open the brood area more. Reversing probably would be quicker.

"To get the bottoms of brood frames occupied and drawn" If the nights are still cold are they really going to work the bottom of the frames in the bottom box? Yes I know entrance reducers, but that doesn't always get them down there. I do not use screen bottom boards. I live along the coast and the nights are damp and chilly even in the summer and we often have ground fog. So I like solid boards under my bees.

“To put the feed super on the bottom to get granulated honey out of the brood frames and moved up as liquid feed” If there is still a good amount of honey frames in the top box, yes this would help. My hives are pretty dry by the time nectar is coming in.

My only reason for not reversing is it is a lot of work. I guess I need someone to convince me why I should.

Today I saw three colors of pollen coming in. When I see that I know the bees are willing to raise drones.
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Re: Why reverse?

Unread post by Allen Dick »

Your comments help. I was not thinking too deeply when i wrote the article. There is more. Just now, I added,
  • "To estimate the feed left in each box and identify boxes plugged with feed and put them below"
    "To get down to the floors to change or scrape them"
    "To move the hives onto fresh ground to inconvenience ants and allow the grass to grow"
This is the fastest way to identify boxes plugged with honey. If they also contain brood, then it is time to shuffle frames, pulling out feed and putting in good, dark worker brood combs. Otherwise, this saves pulling frames.
"To get the bottoms of brood frames occupied and drawn" If the nights are still cold are they really going to work the bottom of the frames in the bottom box?
I am talking about moving up the former bottom boxes up top. The bottoms of the frames in bottom boxes are often poorly occupied and sometimes not fully drawn. That is especially true where the beekeeper is always ahead of the bees and never crowds the brood chambers by neglecting to super in time. Less punctual beekeepers always get their frames drawn right down to the floor, the lids glued down hard, and the outside frames drawn too fat to pull without a crowbar..

Bottom boxes are often dry and empty and moving the bottom boxes up top and into the brood nest gets them conditioned.
Allen Dick, RR#1 Swalwell, Alberta, Canada T0M 1Y0
51° 33'39.64"N 113°18'52.45"W
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/Allen%27s%20Beehives.kmz
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Re: Why reverse?

Unread post by Allen Dick »

Here is the latest version, clearing up some vagueness.

Why reverse?
  • To estimate the feed left in each box and identify boxes plugged with feed (and put them below)
    To spread brood vertically without moving frames
    To get the brood spread between two or three boxes in advance of splitting
    To get the bottoms of brood frames occupied and drawn
    To stimulate the bees to rearrange the stores and make room for brood
    To put the feed super on the bottom to get granulated honey out of the brood frames and moved up as liquid feed
    To get down to the floors to change or scrape them
    To move the hives onto fresh ground to inconvenience ants and allow the grass to grow
Note. I always split onto a newly scraped floor in front of or beside where the hive presently stands. I only lift each box once unless I have to shuffle them.

Note: I am using three brood chambers on most hives. Where I am using two, the same applies, but I am moving a heavy top box down to the bottom and not shuffling three. If the top box is light, there is less reason to reverse, but it still may be useful to address some of the issues it solves.
Allen Dick, RR#1 Swalwell, Alberta, Canada T0M 1Y0
51° 33'39.64"N 113°18'52.45"W
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/Allen%27s%20Beehives.kmz
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Colino
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Re: Why reverse?

Unread post by Colino »

Allen Dick wrote:Bottom boxes are often dry and empty and moving the bottom boxes up top and into the brood nest gets them conditioned.
That is exactly the way my feral hive was. Not a thing in the bottom box and the brood nest was only 7 frames, so instead of reversing I used the drawn comb in my packages and will give them another box when and if the re-queening is successful and they build up. Will that work because I made that decision on the fly?
Narcissism is easy because it's me or I, Empathy is hard because it's they or them.-Colino
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