Thank you very much for this.
I'm quietly confident with it all so far and will seek mentoring.
Its the end of the year which I really feel most apprehensive about, as that's where things went wrong for my previous colony.
They were not in good shape and by all accounts the previous guy had not helped things much
I really want to be a step ahead for them this time ,so with a dearth of experience ,all I have is preparing well in advance.
I would gladly adapt early season activities and forego honey this year to enhance their chances if it would help.
I am using national wooden hives .
I've been given the idea that a small well-insulated brood area is good to overwinterand to reduce the box to half a dozen central frames with insulation on the outer spaces is a way to do this(hence my question of how to wind the colony down to this configuration)
If this is the way forward, how does this fit in with the supered-stores underneath as you mention?
Bear in mind the forum responsible for most of my knowledge to this point was unprofessional to say the least....
I'm quietly confident with it all so far and will seek mentoring.
Its the end of the year which I really feel most apprehensive about, as that's where things went wrong for my previous colony.
They were not in good shape and by all accounts the previous guy had not helped things much
I really want to be a step ahead for them this time ,so with a dearth of experience ,all I have is preparing well in advance.
I would gladly adapt early season activities and forego honey this year to enhance their chances if it would help.
I am using national wooden hives .
I've been given the idea that a small well-insulated brood area is good to overwinterand to reduce the box to half a dozen central frames with insulation on the outer spaces is a way to do this(hence my question of how to wind the colony down to this configuration)
If this is the way forward, how does this fit in with the supered-stores underneath as you mention?
Bear in mind the forum responsible for most of my knowledge to this point was unprofessional to say the least....