Single Brood Chambers - Fall and Winter 

I just successfully overwintered my 8-frame single brood chamber colony of Italians in northern Colorado. The hive is huge coming into April. I did a fall Apivar treatment, followed your feed guidelines and insulated the box. We had night time lows of -29C in January and it didn't seem to bother the bees at all. My local bee club said I "HAD" to have 2 brood boxes for my bees to survive winter in Colorado...

After nearly 40 years of beekeeping I began experimenting with overwintering singles and I've experienced great success. However, I insulate the 10 frame box using foamboard; I also eliminated the upper ventilation entirely leaving a small entrance at the bottom board. It's apparent that the lifespan of worker bees has been shortened making successful overwintering more difficult; reducing space and the stress from cold has made all the difference.

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Thank you very much, for this video! So glad to see you doing videos again. I do appreciate your work. I heard that you were going to be a speaker at the Hive Live Conference and hope to see you there.

Would love to hear an opinion on the older 11 5/8" jumbo or the 12 frame dadant box vs single deep.

This is my second season of trying single brood chamber management and I am puzzled by a new problem. One hive has been extremely strong from the start, and put up three medium supers of honey . I did a post-flow harvest on all the hives but left each with one super of partial or uncapped nectar/honey, taking only frames with at least 75% capped cells. The super strong hive has a huge population of bees, with 20 frames covered with bees after the harvest. How do I take off the remaining super? I have been beekeeping for 9 years now and never had this strong of a population to try to over-winter! I have tried several times with relatively large population, with mixed results - I have never had to address 'too many bees' It seems a bit late to try a split. Any advice?

You can almost double the efficiency of your XPS pink insulation board by spray glueing mylar survival blankets on their (bottom) hive side. We just did a how to video on that simple process.

Those black wraps look like hot during the day and cold at night . The styrofoam will insulate the top but the cardboard will have next to no insulation .

I wonder why I never hear American bee keepers promoting single brood chamber management

Hello Mr Kelly... Congratulations for your great and sophisticated job!!! Have ever used the Dadant hive???

cost of hive with all of this 1000 usd bees medication sugar overwintering etc

The hive cover you use in Ontario will work on the Prairies? We experience much colder temps in East Central Alberta so just wondering if this is a concern?

how come I can't find part 1?

Do you have a problem with moisture?in ky I use quilt boxes to help control moisture.just wondering!!

hey paul....what does the frames configuration is in the winter single brood chamber look like??...is there like 5 frames of honey and couple frames of brood and drawn comb frames??

Thanks for posting, it is so interesting.

Would you recommend replacing ventilated bottom board with a solid one?

First year overwintering 2 hives in single brood chamber. I began feeding with a top feeder yet the bees will not take it in, I am beginning to worry as we are approaching winter. My hives don’t feel as heavy as you describe. Any advice?

The biggest disadvantage for hobbyists switching to single brood from double is the sugar. Presently with inflation here in BC, 10 KGs is $17.00. Do the math on 4 gallons of syrup per hive at 2:1. It is not cheap.

Thank you

Thank you!

Can I buy some boxes?

That insulation is not toxic?

A few beekeepers are advocating putting that Styrofoam on the bottom and the four sides as well. After all why not insulate the hives like you would your house? Some of those even leave that Styrofoam on year round. Have you folks done any research with this concept? If I recall correctly the one RU-vid channel was Vino farms. He was also advocating making a very tall frame the same height as both a long and a medium so the bees could create a round cluster. Another one is Etienne from Yukon.