This time of year, as folks come to pick up their Nucs, I often get the question of what kind of boxes (Deep, Medium or Shallow) should I use for my bees. It’s a logical question, as there are all sorts of different set-ups out there and it can get confusing.

First, some basics – there are generally three types of langstroth hive boxes:

1. Deeps (frames are 9-5/8 inches high),
2. Mediums (frames are 6-5/8 inches high), and
3. Shallows (frames are 5-11/16 inches high)

When I first got into beekeeping, I remember wondering why in the heck were there three sizes? It’s not like we have small bees and large bees – they are all the same size! I soon found out that Deeps and Shallows had been around a long time. Deeps were traditionally used for the bees to keep their home – raise the brood and store some resources (honey, pollen, etc…) Shallows were for honey – they were smaller and easier to pick up and move around when full of honey. I think most of the old time beekeepers in our area kept bees in two deeps (home/brood chambers) and used a bunch of shallows for honey.

(I use two terms to describe my boxes – brood boxes and honey supers. They live in the former all year round. They store honey in the latter for me to harvest in May/June/July. Depending on the situation, I have used all three boxes sizes for brood chambers, but only Mediums and Shallows for honey supers.)

Mediums came along later, initially to replace the heavy Deeps for brood chambers (I am sure lifting the top Deep off in a two Deep setup would break anyone’s back) but then folks also started to use them as honey supers.

I started off using a double deep setup (as described above) for my brood chambers. Within a couple of years, it was clear to me that it was too much space for my area. The bees hardly made it through a fraction of their honey over the Winter, it was a huge amount of space for smaller colonies to manage and it seemed to encourage swarming (by creating a honey boundary above them from the start of the season.) I soon started to experiment with a single deep under a single medium. This is my primary setup today. I do run Deep-Shallow setups and a few with only 3 mediums for the brood chamber. All of these setups work for me in my area. I seem to prefer the Deep-Medium setup, based on the numbers.

For honey, I use both Mediums and Shallows. Shallows are a dream, mainly because they are fairly light, even when full of honey. I continue to use them to this day, but may end up phasing them out. They are fine if you are running a few hives in your backyard, but having 3 sizes can be a pain when I need to run to 5 different yards in one afternoon and need to be stocked up in all three sizes to be prepared. I am thinking of moving to only Deeps and Mediums, to ease the inspection cycle, but have not committed yet.

For Nucs, I create both Deeps and Mediums. 5 frames of bees, in either the Deep or Medium size.

Wow. This site is full of defects! Folks have been messaging me over the years, but I really didn’t realize how many things had stopped working! No doubt many have given up on me (I probably would have.)
The Contact Me form is now fixed. I probably need to do more tweaks to it, as I do not think it prevents the spammers at the moment. Regardless, it now works, along with the Swarm Report. I believe that I have also finally nailed down my site skin. Lots more to do, but the site is getting back on her feet!

Now that mid-March has arrived, the season for the Bee Keeper in central Virginia is in full swing. My primary goals right now are to get honey supers on any hive that appears strong. I also want to note the hives that appear ready for Nuc creation (which starts in about a week, for me.) Of course, there are lots of prep tasks that are constantly taking place now (new frame and foundation creation, patching boxes (or, more likely, putting boxes in need of repair in my garage for future work – whenever time allows!!!)) and general equipment prep.)

Adding a honey super now is probably not the best idea for the normal hobby beekeeper. It’s probably better to shoot for early April for this task. I mainly start in mid-March because I have found that I can rarely get around to all of the hives in early April. So, to make sure all are ready on Tax Day, I start a month early. In truth, this probably slows down some of my hives (too much space to manage), but I have never seen a long term negative impact (maybe I get less honey than I normally would have, but I get enough honey as it is!) Why do I add honey supers? For honey, of course! But, it is a swarm management technique. Giving them that extra space now can keep some hives happy and out of the swarm mode as the nectar flow starts to pop.

I was also able to fully hive all but one of my overwintered Nucs this past weekend. I say it way too much, but these nucs really impress me. With the exception of a few swarms, I have never seen a build up like I see with overwintered Nucs at this time of year. I think the fact that I raise the queen in July (and sometimes August) means that she is born, gets to raise a few new bees and then the hive tells her to STOP for the Winter. She was just born and probably says “What the (*&(*&!!!!!”. She then waits all Winter and, once they give her the green light, she goes to town. At any rate, they really roll (and that’s why I have learned that they need to be fully hived in early March – this year, I am running behind a bit.)

But, I ran across one this past weekend that was definitely not popping. She was probably working 3 frames, max. If I combined all of the brood, I bet I could get it all onto one frame. These things frustrate me. Early on, when I was just observing and not messing with them, I had a couple of instances where a hive that appeared much slower than others, significantly outperformed its peers by May. In those days, I remember thinking they wouldn’t make it, but didn’t try to manage them (this was my “leave them bee and see what happens” phase), and was surprised to see that most did just fine. The queens simply like to start their build up later.

But, since then, I have had many experiences where weak queens never amount to much and the hive, eventually, peters out. I always wonder “if I had just killed the queen in late March, would the hive had recovered?” As of this moment, I am sticking with the “late bloomers” theory and letting them be. I did reduce them to only one Deep super and am hopeful they will be rolling by early March (unlikely, given normal Bee Math, but we shall see.)

Site Update: I have successfully implemented HTTPS, so everything is secure now. I am currently playing around with various themes. I do not recall being so particular, but nothing seems to suit my fancy at the moment. At any rate, next up on my list is fixing the Email and Contact forms.

February is a month of great anticipation! I seem to have more energy and/or enthusiasm for getting ready for the Spring garden and, of course, the Flow than any other time of the year. February always has at least a day or two that pops up close to or above 60 and gives everyone a taste of Spring. The bees begin flying in earnest and beekeepers have their first real chance to go in and actually inspect a hive. It’s exciting thinking about what is coming in the next couple of months – it’s probably the most exciting time if you keep bees.

I personally do not feed my bees anymore, but I do think it is wise for the new beekeepers to feed any hives that seem light at this time of year. I would say that anything less than 5 medium frames of honey would be a problem in my book. It really doesn’t take a lot of honey at this time (I have had a full hive make it with only a bit over 1 full deep frame of honey in early February). Initially, I simply fed because I wanted to be sure to have bees. In year two, I was a little more selective and by year three, I was taking risks to see exactly how much honey they needed. Nowadays, I have a pretty good handle on the honey stores by December and I just need to lift the back of the hive (a weight check). Mistakes do happen, but they are very rare. My goal is always to keep feed away from my bees. I want them eating honey made from natural nectar!

So, besides doing weight checks and maybe playing with an Overwintered Nuc, I used almost all of February to get my gear ready. I plan to create/sell 15 Nucs, create 5 new hives and sell 15 existing hives. In addition, I want to swap out some of my older, drawn frames with frames of foundation. This means that I need to make sure that I have plenty of new frames ready and lots of hive boxes prepped. For whatever reason, it is a labor of love for sure. It is an exhilarating chore, preparing for March.

So, now that March is here, my first real activity takes place. I have found that Mar 1 (or the first period of decently warm Spring weather (maybe 3 days with highs at or above 50) is the best time to hive my overwintered Nucs. These Nucs always come out of Spring stronger than any bees that I am used to (maybe excluding a really strong swarm). I have to get them space in early March or they are guaranteed to swarm. The weather looks cold and wet right now, but I am confident that a good day will pop up shortly for me to begin my work.

Once that’s done, I hope to post here about my next task – Swarm Management and Nuc Creation!!! Bonzai!

Site Update: I have fixed several of the problems that had crept into the site due to months of inattention. There are several more, including the Mail engine and a couple of other items that need fixing. I also cleaned up the skin, but this needs tweaking as well. Bare with me:)