Why Managing Bee Hives as Single Brood Chambers Works 

Good day Devan, I've been keeping Bees for over 40yrs, Frankly I never knew someone was so keen on a single Brood chamber as I do,as such I rated you a wise Beekeeper, Once you keep that brood chamber furnished every 21days you're getting a young set of bees,and in my book that's more than enough to keep that machine running, Double brood chamber is a virtual waste of time and money, Single brood chamber properly managed is all you need to be successful, Very good video worth watching and listening too. You're a man of my own Heart, Continue doing our craft Beekeeping.

Been keeping bees for about 5 years in MA and never managed to keep a hive over winter until this year. I think the fact that I changed to single brood box management contributed to the overwintering success. I look forward to the coming season with a head start over packaged bees.

Hi Devan, I tried your method last spring on my 4th year of beekeeping. I am in Michigan so similar weather here. I did the single brood box and removed the queen excluder in the fall leaving one deep above them full of honey. For the very first time, every hive survived the winter and it was a rough one. Thank you for your ideas and video’s, very useful.

You are the first person I’ve seen that has experience use one brood and more honey supers besides my uncle years ago , my uncle had an orchard and the nectar was always flowing with one brood two honey supers , it make sense because my uncle said the same thing over 40 years ago and he always had healthy colonies and more honey than I’ve ever seen anywhere else , sometimes he would add a 3rd honey super and they would fill up twice in a season . Besides helping my uncle I’m new and keeping my own bees so this just makes me lean towards one brood because everything you said is spot on and with the success my uncle had with this method and he had 400 hives ,/colonies, I’m going to set mine up like this too , it will be much easier to control mites too should you encounter them , all in all the bees will adapt and be efficient and produce more honey , you will know if you aren’t doing/managing your hives right if you start losing swarms in the spring, the thing is , it’s easier to manage brood with one box because a healthy colony will out grow two boxes just as easy as one box and so on , if you had 3 broods they would outgrow that too if you let them go , so with that said this is a fabulous setup for me because I plan on splitting when one brood becomes full just as I would do two on the second season of a new colony . I don’t know if my comment will make sense to anyone else but I do understand the one brood concept and think it’s a magnificent set up that can ultimately end up with healthier, happier bees with less stress on the queen most likely , thanks for the video!!

I've started doing single brood boxes and I have to agree that singles are way easier to manage than doubles. It begs the question as to why double brood boxes got started in the first place. Thanks for the encouragement and inspiration.

This is how we do it in Australia as per the bio security laws, much easier than how I see you over seas blokes running two brood boxes. We have no issues and plenty of honey production

Devan you're awesome to take the time to help fellow bee keepers. I'm sure it's take a lot of time to video, post and answer people's questions. Thank you!

'Understanding what is going on in your hive and problem solving' 👍 Thanks.

Here in Portugal we have something that might be considered our national hive, it's called "Lusitana", it's a big box that looks like your brood box but little bit higher, doesn't require excluder because the queen almost never goes to the supers because she has plenty of space in the brood box.

You make great videos Devan - well presented, well explained, great info and I like your confident but humble manner. Keep it up.

Nicely done. Yes please continue making videos. Wintering the hive for sure. Thanks

This is a great knowledgeable individual that also can do the videos with care....thank you very much....

Great Videos. I will be brand new at beekeeping this Spring. I have read two books, watched many videos, and believe I am going to follow your advice. Single brood chamber seems to be ideal for a beginning beekeeper, so I am going to follow your instructions. Thanks again.

I tried single brood chamber this year and it was a total success - my strongest hive and most productive ! Thanks !!

I think you're an outstanding beekeeper I love watching your videos I've learned a lot from you keep up the good work

This video was so well done. I'm now seriously considering single brood changes. Thank you. 😎🐝🐝🐝

Thank you Devan. I will be consolidating some hives to single brood deeps and give it a try with an open mind.

Thanks for making your educational videos. Because of your video I do only manage single brood boxes, and it’s better. Thanks 😊. I try to watch all your videos

Outstanding video. Appreciate the information. Appreciate the open sharing of knowledge and experience. Appreciate the humble approach with humility.

Hi Devon, I have watched all you video as of today. I would like to say they are very well done and very informative. The information you give is very easy to understand. I am new to beekeeping as of this year and getting my first hives around April. I appreciate the information about single brood chamber. All I have seen or read dealt with double brood chamber. I just join my local Bee Association and they also recommend using single brood chamber. I am located here in the Heart Of Texas area. I like to say thanks and keep up with the good work, can't wait to see more of your new videos.

Super stoked!! Thank you! I'm new to bees and am going to try this this year and learn to manage my colony. Great video!

Thanks for the awesome video. Going into my second year of beekeeping and always ran double broods. Just watching this video on how much more manageable a single is I’m going to actually try it. Appreciate the content.

Best beekeeper presenter of information I’ve seen to date. Most beekeeper videos are either unnecessarily complicated and lack simplicity. Your presentation was perfectly executed. Just subscribed. Looking forward to seeing your other videos.

After watching Barnyard Bees vids Im convinced single brood chamber is the way to start out. In fact, i plan on using 5 frame boxes to encourage fast splitting to fill up a 10 frame for possible 7 or 10 frame over wintering. Tnx for good audio and clear presentation.

Hi Devan, great videos you have out there, thanks for sharing. I always used a single brood chamber (modified dadant) since it's the most common method down here in Italy. I recently moved to using only mediums for both brood and honey, and I think that suits my goals and my way of working definitely better. I easily develop the brood chamber on three boxes before the first main honey flow (black locust) and I can still harvest a bit of dandelion. With the main flow then I reduce the brood chamber to two or one box (depends of the development of the colony) and leave all the brood below the excluder + a queen cell and all the foragers, that colony will harvest the black locust like crazy. I remove the rest of the frames (broods, food, whatever + the old queen) and that split will have a super on about 30/40 days later for the second harvest (usually chestnut honey or lime tree or whatever it blooms that time).

nice video ,good job with the bees . I will stay up with your posts, thanks

Nice videos, Devan. Just found you today! I'd definitely love to see what the winter hive prep looks like for a single chamber in your climate.

hi Devan great videos. thanks for sharing. i used to do double brood chamber but tried most of our hives this season with single brood chamber. Good to see the diffference really. cheers

Love your style. You make excellent sense.

Hello Devan, already have you a thumbs up for this video but after watching again and a few more seasons under my belt need to give another 👍. Hope all is well thanks, Matt

Very clear and concise, good video!

I had a double brood box and they filled it with honey. We had a good flow this spring in NC. I am running single in my other 4 hives and plan on continuing with single brood chambers. Loved the video.

You are obviously doing something right! Great job!!!

Excellent video. I believe I'll try that on a couple of my hives

You make a really good case for maintaining single brood chambers. I feel that this concept would also help my own management. My climate would also be perfect for this as well. Thanks

Devan great interesting video the way you just plucked the queen out like that i bet shes thinking what the hells going on lol

I am a bit confused reading some of the comments. Folks saying the only way to accomplish this is by taking out nucs to prevent swarming or that it's mainly for honey production. I watched thousands of videos from many many beekeepers. Everyone managing their bees for honey or queen production or selling bees all have to do swarm prevention. No one is exempt regardless of how many brood chambers you have. You are either adding space or you have to take some of the strength away. It's like saying well sure you can drive a car a certain way but you have to have tires to do that. It's a given! We all have to do something to manage swarming or they swarm. Whether you are adding space or taking away strength it's swarm management. if you aren't focused on honey then you are taking splits for propagation but it's the same thing. Devin's point still reigns true. 1 brood box takes half the time of 2 and a 1/3 the time of three brood chambers to inspect. less to inspect means less chance of missing something if you are rushing. I also use single brood box management. I am from Canada. Cold and very long winters. I insulated and prepped a shed for indoor storage of the bees for winter. It's almost the same cost as all the tarps I'd need to buy anyway. Single boxes make moving and storage many times easier. Single boxes requires less equipment per hive. more efficient for me easier and cheaper. No one out there Is saying you can't manage in two or in three or in top bar hives or whatever. But there are a whack that put down single box management. Makes zero sense. Most folks I've seen using single box management have absolutely brilliant very strong hives. The numbers don't lie. There is more than enough room in a single managed deep. While many will criticize about how bees like their hives narrow and vertical compared to long and horizontal, I see as many swarms taken out of floors and ceilings as I do walls so bees on their own and not managed do not care about horizontal or vertical they care about a suitable space. Many of those naturalist critics use top bar hive also which is all horizontal. It's real simple. It's choice! It's work! It's the individual and their ability and time to manage. Everyone can say why they chose the method they are using and there are positives and negatives to each. Regardless of what type of purpose you have whether it's honey production or bee propagation, single box management works big time. Can't argue with 200lbs of honey per hive and I know people taking multiple nucs or full splits or both in the spring and a late season split from a single hive in single box management. There is a commercial guy here in Canada that goes through how he does his single box management in detail which is quite ODD because commercial guys are usually tight lipped. But he isn't He goes through an entire year of his management practices. explains it all very very well. Like Devin he pulls off monster honey crops plus a whack of propagation. It's real simple. If single box management was in anyway negative to the bees well being, propagation and production then no commercial person would use it. Each of those issues relate directly to a loss of dollars and cents and higher costs. Commercial is all about efficiency and cost versus benefit. his page is called Canadian beekeepers blog. I basically do what he does. being from up north many issues are different for us than in the south. I have to adjust timing because I have several hives while he has 1200 minimum. But If I get hives as Awesome as his I'm a happy camper. Folks can criticize but they can't argue with numbers. Single box management is as or more viable than any other management method. Comes down to what suits the individual.

Great video and explanation! Clear, concise, keeping it moving and even fast-forwarding through where appropriate. Thanks for sharing and for the quality presentation.

Thanks Devan for this great tip... I'm also in southwestern Ontario (Windsor area) our winters aren't crazy bad but would love to see how you winterise your hives as we get close to the white stuff and freezing temps. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge with us. Looking forward to your future vids.

First year beekeeper considering quitting before I found your video. Multiple chamber hives are WAY too much for me to handle. Will start practicing in single brood chambers. Thank you for your video - very helpful!

I am planning on starting bee keeping in the spring, thanks for the tip!

Very helpful, and clear tutorial, thank you.

Interesting..I live on the north Oregon coast .I am trying this on a few hives and see how it works out. thanks for the video..

Very good explanation!

Great video mate! Nicely shot too!

Thanks for teaching us sir Master Devan...

Hello Mr. Rawn, This is a very good analytical approach to bee keeping. Im professionalky a Network Administrator, and all about the facts and figures. I am interested in helping to keep bees alive and start my own bee apiary. You have given me a lot of knowladge that I have been looking for. Thank you Ben.

Super educational - Thanks!

I've done this in the past.....25yrs ago, but got away from it. But now I'm almost 75yrs old and think I'll go back to a deep brood box and a queen excluder and shallow supers and see if its easier on ME.

I have to say, spot on, you know your craft !, especially like the math was a nice touch and anyone that does not get it, well will eventually learn, in time.

I appreciate that you showed the math to support your system. It makes for a pretty much airtight argument in favor of sticking with a single brood chamber.

Devan, I always share this video when the double vs single vs triple? (lol) topic comes up. Ive been using this method and has worked VERY well for me in Central Florida. Thanks for the great videos. Keep it up!!!

awesome video and I am now going to split my hives and use single brood chambers only.. easier for me to handle . Here in SW Florida still need to feed in winter months, but I know I will enjoy working with single brood chambers. Mahalo

Your videos are soooo helpful.

Very interesting and fits your management style - I use a single brood box but twice as big (holds 17 frames plus one drone frame). That way I can adjust (with a block frame) the amount of space. I need extra brood frames for swarms and traps.

Very interesting. I have been using doubles so far. Subscribed and I will be trying out singles this year. Thanks for the great video.

I agree... with a double brood box... by the time you've worked through the upper set of frames, the bees are rightly ticked off and get feisty and make the examination of the lower box rushed/uncomfortable and like you say.... it's still just 1 queen so debatable if you're getting a larger colony by having that 2nd brood box... thanks for sharing - very placid bees. Wow - 200lbs honey from 1 colony. Unheard of in my neck of the woods :-o

You are a fine beekeeper! Your bees trust you.

Nice Job. I've been using queen excluders the last several years with my queen rearing operation, have seen the benefits of restricting the queen to a single box with both the breeder queens and queen right cell builder colonies. It's given me insight in how to use excluders properly with production colonies, similar to what you are doing here.

Seems sense. Clear info. Thanks

Great information... thanks!

Congrats from Greece. I so much agree, I do the same. This is the professional way. Every year making at least (usually more) as many nucs as the number of productive hives I want to exploit next year. Current year's nucs, will have it easy/keep egg laying low, and they will form my productive hives for next year. Last year's productive hives (which worked hard during all honey flows) will this year all be split into new nucs, the old queens left behind as backups will enforce my current years productive hives when there is a need for it (surely there will be a such time, if not, still will join them at some point during a honey flow anyway). So every late spring/early summer, there will be: My productive hive's with nearly a year's old queen (not really since I keep egg laying low for new nucs), these are hives made last spring. New nucs made from last year's productive hives. Backup's which are the left overs from this year's splits and they will unite with current year's productive hives during a honey flow, getting rid of old (2 yrs old) queens. The single brood box using queen excluders allows you to make nucs faster but also work with the hives faster, hence allowing a single person to handle more hives... Better control, easier handling, early honey crops and most importantly, control swarming by taking as many nucs, nice and easy not having to find queens... If I don't do it like that I can't handle more than 150 hives max. This way handling is easier managing more than 300 hives myself.

Your videos are ace dude!

I like all your videos very helpfully help me out alot

Thanks for posting.

I also love singles way to more,it saves tons of time while inspecting am keeping db 12 frames hives.I think i seen once in books it was tested and calculated everything above 60k of bees is loss in honey harvest best of luck from Serbia love the videos :)

Nice videos and advice!!!!

Thanks for the explanation!!

I like your approach. Opinion, backing numbers to support your opinion, reasoning, then a challenge to try it out. I'm a year 1 beek and I'm running two hives. One is set up as a single brood box, the other as a double. I want to see how they do. I'm running the single without the queen excluder. I'll run the double with an excluder. Depending on how they do going through winter, I may change that up, or decide to run excluders on all boxes. Beekeeping is about trial and error, and finding what works best for your bees in your area with your management style.

I have used singles for over 6 years and love it. At the start it was double deeps as per what everyone else was doing but yea over time you have to go your own way. We have a saying here in North Carolina, It depends is the best answer.

Thanks for showing the Maths side on beekeeping!

Thanks for posting this video

Thank you...You are great ...

So, I feel like you addressed this, but I want to be sure I understand. If I use a single brood chamber, my population should not be negatively effected. My queen will just be more efficient in utilizing the frames. Also, my hives should be hardy enough to survive a brutal Michigan winter. As you are in Canada, & have brutal winters as well. Thanks for the help

Good Video! I am running single brood chambers simply because the queen did not move up. I tried a few times to empty out a few frames, give new- and checkerboarding was not an option at that point. (Small girl can't lift heavy boxes) My 3rd year- I'm actually relieved as I have not been able to get a hive through winter. I think there was just too much space to heat. Going to overwinter with the deep and one super. Keep up the videos!

Agreed!! All my hives are single brood too!

Hi Devan I have subscribed and watched all of your videos. Thanks for the time and work that goes into all of that. I am a new beekeeper in Nova Scotia and if you have a video that I missed about managing swarming with single box brood chambers i would be interested in seeing it or your comments

Hope to see the "more comprehensive video with some wintering tips" as it would certainly be helpful and relevant to the single brood box technique. Also I am guessing that your winter preps would be happening soon?

Very well thought out and explained. I switched to single deeps this year, and expect to transition all my hives next year if they overwinter well.

man...you are one smart beek....following you... thanks

Good video mate 🕯🐝🍯

As a noob beekeeper I'm in awe on how you can touch the combs and work with them without gloves... that's awesome.

I found your video very informative. Thank you. I am a new beekeeper and was wondering why most info available talks about 2 brood chambers and not 1 while all the local (Peace River Country Alberta) commercial beekeepers are using single brood boxes. This is only my third season and I was keen to try singles this year. I believe the big advantage is that it takes fewer bees to keep the brood warm when they are consolidated in one box. This equates to more bees available to forage and more honey in the supers. This year's yields verify the efficiencies I was expecting. I have about 1/2 doubles and 1/2 singles.

Devan, your videos are great i like the way you present your management styles and practices. Question for ya, whats your thoughts on single deep brood chambers in an 8 frame with screened bottom boards? Im in the Seattle WA area. Keep the videos coming!!!

Thanks for this video and sharing your calculations. What is your hive over winter survival rate?

Thanks ! I get your point and I shure you are right... but since I got my hive this spring (neeeeeew be), I'll stick to double. BUT... If I see I can put breewed frames down in one shot, I might put the queen excluder and use only one deep ;) We'll see !

I do the same thing but I remove the queen excluder after the Honey flow and the queen only lay in the bottom brood box 😊. Awesome video 👍

I totally agree but never did the math but you really nailed it.

Good video, I'll have a crack at it this season.

Great video... Thank you )))

Smart for haney production. How about winters, you have a video for that ? Thanks!

Nice pasture. I wish I had that. 😉

By taking a nuc from each box, you have controlled swarming and thereby made your one box system work well. If you had not done so, I suspect your queens would have taken off with swarms in protest at the lack of laying space. So this is to say that your system relies on taking some brood as a nuc at the right time. Not a criticism, but surely that is a more complete picture of your system? Good looking colonies, by the way.

I tell you what’s even more fun, I just started doing nuc colonies this year and you would be amazed at how productive they are and how fast they fill frames , and consistently too , I’m in shock at how much faster everything gets done and what a joy it is and how easy 5 frame nucs are to do everything, I’m doing 2-5 frames for brood now and supering over that , I get more full frames and there is more brood in 10 frames of nuc than 10 frames of a deep because the bees are more efficient and consistent when the boxes are tighter and higher, you can do better than my one pull of 74 pounds of honey per nuc using 2-5 frame broods and two 5 frames supers , and they make 74 pounds faster than one or even two deep broods and two medium supers 😋

Great videos.Will you be posting more anytime soon ? Thanks

Hey Devon, I just subscribed. I like your vids, thoughts and style of bee management . Because of your location do your bees overwinter well and how many hive do you have?

People should understand that beekeeping is local. Here in SE NC we have a 6 week MAX nectar flow and a single brood chamber would NEVER produce supers filled with honey. In my location it takes tons of bees to make a honey crop. This always means I'm in a fine line between hives so crowded that swarming is a big gamble OR hives that aren't severely crowded and don't fill supers. BEEKEEPING IS LOCAL FOLKS. Glad you are doing well with your bees.

With your way of one single you have many more benefits not too much extra room in the hive , too much room causes problems. I like what I see. Thank you.

I am new to bee keeping this is my second year and this spring I said for now when I need to add a brood box I was splitting the hive, I like the idea of just adding honey supers. but I live in NH which cold can be a killer of bees, what is you climate like and how do you winterize your bees, you must take the excluder off in fall and leave them one honey box right, I hope you do a video for winter prep. great video, may try it next year

Awesome.