Double brood 14x12

[Bee’s Knees]

I am thinking of moving one of my hives to double brood. This would be two 14x12 boxes.
I quite often find things a little tight with 10 frames, if I move to double brood could I reduce each box to nine frames? Would I need to put in dummy boards, or can I just give each frame a bit more space. Or this this just mean I end up with lots of brace comb?

Also what is the best way of introducing the new box, I take it on the bottom and just move one or two frames of brood down? Thee rest would be nee foundation.

Is there anything I need to be aware of over wintering with double brood on 14x12. Is this too bigger space to keep warm in winter?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[Wilco]

That's a *lot* of space unless you have a really prolific queen. Also surely you have 11 frames not 10?

 

[Bee’s Knees]

They are WBC hives, not sure if that makes a difference but I think it’s 10 frames and that already seems tight.. Now you have got me thinking though, I will count them tomorrow.

 

[Bee’s Knees]

They are WBC hives, not sure if thatmakes a difference but I think it’s 10 frames and that already seems tight.. Now you have got me thinking though, I will count them tomorrow.

 

[Wilco]

That would make sense.

It may be you could have them on double brood in the season but move down to single for overwintering.

If they're wall to wall brood then I'd recommend chequerboarding, where you put half the brood in each box, all staggered old-new-old-new with the new frames.

If they're not wall to wall brood then it may just be you need more supers for the adult bees to move up into.

 

[Bee’s Knees]

That would make sense.

It may be you could have them on double brood in the season but move down to single for overwintering.

If they're wall to wall brood then I'd recommend chequerboarding, where you put half the brood in each box, all staggered old-new-old-new with the new frames.

If they're not wall to wall brood then it may just be you need more supers for the adult bees to move up into.

It’s currently brood over 7/10 frames, and I currently have three supers on it and about to add another.
Is running double brood over winter something I need to be concerned about?

 

[pargyle]

Two 14 x 12 boxes is a lot of space unless you have a very very prolific queen. Certainly I would remove the second box in winter as they will only use the top box. I run 14 x 12's without a queen excluder and sometimes in the spring build up the queen will lay up a bit in the first super but by the end of the season she's back down in the brood box and they have backfilled any cells that were used for brood. They clean them out well before storing honey in them - I'm afraid I don't share the worries some people seem to have about extracting honey from brood frames. I would not crush and strain though ....