How to Boost Your Colonies on Every Inspection – Checkerboarding with Foundation

Today I'm going to show you what checkerboarding is all about. So, new branding there, and I hope you liked it. Checkerboarding is a really useful tool that I use on pretty much every single inspection throughout the year. Don't confuse it with the technique that is also called checkerboarding, which is a way of manipulating your colonies in December or January to try and stop them swarming. The reason that I use checkerboarding is to help with my colony management. In this video, I'm going to talk to you about everything to do with checkerboarding, why I use it, how I use it, show you the results from the beginning through to the end. So when a colony of bees builds up in the brood box, they start off where you start them and they generally build outwards like that. They arrange their brood in the middle of the nest and then you get pollen towards the edges and then outside of that you have your stores. That's a pretty standard wild bee nest configuration, but you can manipulate that configuration to your advantage. A colony that I've got over here started off about a week ago now on a single brood box, full to the brim with bees covering all of the frames, brood in the middle, pollen on the outside, and then stores outside of that. The reason that the bees set themselves up like that is that it's warmest in the middle, so it's easier for them to keep the brood nice and warm. The pollen they need close to the brood nest in order to feed the young larva bee bread, which is just pollen mixed with honey. You see it stored in the frames. And into the outer edges, basically wasted space for them, and they just use it as additional honey storage. If you leave your bees in this configuration, there's no issues whatsoever. So you don't need to checkerboard all of your colonies, but I find it's a useful technique for expanding your bees a little bit quicker than you normally would. It's also a really good technique to give the bees something to do, keep them busy, It means that they're drawing out new frames, and it means that you can process your frames and get them drawn out much quicker than if you were to just put on an additional box on the top. So in today's video, that's exactly what I've done, and that's exactly what I'm going to show you. Started off last week with a brood box full of bees, a single brood box. On top of that, I added an additional brood box to go double brood, and I moved 4 of the frames from the box below up above. I created essentially a chimney like that with all of the bees and the frames in the middle and then foundation on the outer edges. That was like the first step for me. Once the bees have got used to that configuration there, once the bees have got used to that configuration there after a couple of days, I've gone in and I have checkerboarded the colony. Now checkerboarding in its simplest form means taking a frame of foundation or a frame of plastic foundation with wax on it and placing it in between 2 mature frames. Doesn't really matter what's on those mature frames, can be pollen, can be stores. I find it works best if you place it in between frames of brood because the colony really doesn't like that and they look at you like, no, no, no, that's not how we set ourselves up. We have brood on the middle, pollen on the outside, stores on the outer edges. So by doing that, you're forcing the bees to work those frames so that they can get back to the configuration that they like the most. A couple of important considerations here. Don't do this on really, really small colonies. If you've got like a 2-frame split, 2 frames of brood, 1 frame of stores, don't go putting a frame of foundation slap bang in the middle. You'll cause all sorts of problems doing that. But if you've got like an 8 or 9-frame box of bees, you can definitely double brood them, checkerboard them, and go quite aggressive on it as long as the temperatures are reasonable. And today it's pretty cold, like the last few days here dropping down to like 8 or 9 degrees overnight, 15 degrees in the day. and you will see just how well the bees have responded. So let me give you a before and after shot. This is what the colony looked like when it was on a single brood box. You'll see all of the old frames in there, nice mature 12 to 24-month-old frames, completely drawn out. This is what the frames look like, brood all over, loads of pollen, loads of stores. Let's get inside now and take a look and see what the bees have done in as little as 1 week since they've been checkerboarded. So this beehive here is a Paradise Smart Beehive System, but for the purpose of this video, All you need to know is that it is on a double brood configuration. Floor, 2 brood boxes, and then a super on the top. So I'll take the super off and put that onto one side. And let's take that brood box off and we'll start off downstairs in the bottom brood area. So you can see the difference from the previous week in that we've got different shades of frame colours there. You can see the older frames that have got the burr comb on top of them there, interspersed with the much lighter frames of foundation that I placed So these are the frames of foundation that I put in there. You can see wooden frames, wax foundation, they've just gone straight in through the middle, and on the outer frames the bees haven't touched them. And this is kind of what I'm getting at here. If you put the frames on the outer edge, as this one here is, the bees will get to them when they want to get to them. You're not forcing them to use them, and sometimes they can actually perceive this to be like a wall, so they don't see this as a frame to make additional use of. They see it as that is the limits of the nest, and they can swarm as a result of that. So as you can see here, the outer frames here, bees aren't doing a huge amount on there at all. As you work closer to the middle, you can see here that the bees are starting to work those out. So remember, all of these frames here got put in here at exactly the same time. Bees are starting to work that one there, but they've left the one on the outer If I go over to the one over here that I've checkerboarded, you can see that this frame here was an original frame. This frame here was an original frame, but this frame here is a checkerboarded frame, brand new, right in the middle of 2 frames of brood. Let's get that one out now and I'll show you just how well the bees have made use of that frame. So lovely, friendly colony of bees here, F1 Buckfast from Black Mountain Honey. And as you can see there, the bees have drawn out that entire frame, only not using the very, very edges. Forced them to use that, and they have drawn that out really, really nicely. So let's chuck that frame back in and let's pull out a couple of the other frames. I've gone very, very aggressive with the checkerboarding in the middle there. So this is the bottom brood box, and I've gone a lot more aggressive in the bottom brood box than I have in the top brood box. So again, this is an old frame with burr comb, this is an old frame with burr comb, and this is an old frame with burr comb. These 3 frames here, they are brand new, and And in the bottom box like this, you can be really, really aggressive so long as you've got sufficient bees to cover all of those frames, which we clearly have here. And the reason for that is that bees are just like me, super, super lazy, and when they come back in after foraging, all they want to do is deposit the stores as quickly as possible. Now, in order for them to do that, they need to have drawn out those frames first. So if you're double brooding, go aggressive in the bottom brood box and then put the majority of the brood frames together up in that top box. You can see there the other one that I've checkerboarded. That one there is gonna be beautiful. So we'll take a look at that one first. Now, as I said, bees will naturally get to these frames here. So look, that is the end frame, nothing on it. This one here, an outer frame, they're starting to work on that. But this one here, they really, really don't like the fact that I've put that there. So let's get that one out there. And I reckon we're gonna see that that's completely drawn out because as I said, they like to keep all of that brood central. They like to keep everything else out towards the edges. So there you go. She's not started laying in it yet, but that is a fully, fully drawn out frame 'cause it is in the checkerboarded position. Let's take a look at this outside frame here. So this is essentially where you would put a normal frame. And yep, the bees have started to work it really, really nicely, but nowhere near as much. But then check this out. If I turn that round, they've not bothered at all with that side because for them, they're just not that fussed. They're in no rush. So a quick simple manipulation there is you just turn that one round, and when I come back, they would have drawn out that frame as well. I've made the bees do twice as much work on this frame than they have on this frame, just by the location of where I've placed that frame. So going back over to the original brood box, the bottom one that I aggressively checkerboarded, 3 frames of foundation all together in the middle. Let's get them out one by one now, see if we can find the queen. Hopefully we find some eggs down there because the queen likes to lay eggs as low as possible in the colony. I think we're going to be in for a real positive surprise here. So once again, this is just like perfect demonstration here. That is the outer frame. So again, the bees have started drawing it. If I turn that round, nothing on that side. So they're not even fully drawn out on that face, probably 50-60%, and then nothing on that face. Let's jump into some of these new frames here that I put in the middle. So that frame there It's one of the original frames, and you can see we're going to have lots of nice brood on that frame. Beautiful. So I can already feel it's a really nice heavy frame. Brand new frame. And there we go. Look what the bees have done in as little as about 9 days. She's been straight in there. So let's pull out this middle frame here, central checkerboarded frame, see what the bees have done with it. And as you can see, lots and lots of action in the middle there. So that might not look like they've done a huge amount more, but what they've done is they have drawn the frame out both sides, maybe 70% on either side. You can see a little bit of gnawing on the wires there. Interesting that they do that, but I have basically forced them to use both sides of that frame and get it going. Now if you compare that to just putting an additional brood box full of foundation on the top, what I suspect I would have found today is maybe a couple of frames in the center where the bees have started to draw them out. Instead, I have got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 frames down here that they've started to work on. Even that outer edge frame there, they're having a go on. But you will see exactly the same again. That is the outer edge frame. So they've only just started it on that side and they've not touched it at all on that side. So that's what happens when you give the bees the chance to work out when they want to use the foundation for themselves. But if you checkerboard, you are forcing them to do something that is very unnatural to them. It's unnatural to them, but it gives you as the beekeeper a huge, huge advantage, and it accelerates your bees disproportionately. So let's continue this checkerboarding process a little bit. I'll take that frame off to one side over there. I'm going to move my more mature frames over to the edge. I've got a checkerboarded frame next to it there that it's already started to work on. And then I'm going to place my new frame, outer edge frame in the middle, and I'm just iteratively going to keep on doing that. So again, I've got another frame here. That's the outer frame that I've got. I'm just going to take the more mature frames and I'm going to put them over there to the edge, and I'm going to work out a nice central location for my least drawn out foundation frame, and that will go in the middle. And the bees will be looking up at me again and thinking, what are you doing? That's not what we want. Right, we'll show him. We will turn that frame there into a drawn-out frame with lots of eggs in it next time I come back to visit. Let's do exactly the same on this one here in case you didn't see it there. So I've got a frame here that's not very well mature, new frame. Take that off to one side. I'm going to take my mature frame, place it at the edge. That's a previously checkerboarded frame that's looking very mature now, so that can go over as well. And then I'm going to place the new or the least drawn out frame into that slot there. Similarly, I've got frames over here that are not drawn out, so I'm going to take those out, pop them off to one side. That frame there they've started working on, but again, I want that closer to the centre, so I'll pop that off to one side. This frame here, beautiful mature frame, super, super calm bees. That's going off closer to the edge now, and then basically doing things in reverse. So if you've got frames that are partially drawn, they're going to go out to the edge. Let's take a look at that one there as well. It's a nice frame of brood. blackmountainhoney.co.uk if you're interested in our queens. And then I'm going to place the frame of pure foundation slap bang in the middle like that. Next time everything will be completely drawn and the queen will be using all of those frames. So there we go, simple as that. Checkerboarding, really, really useful tool. Something that I use on every single inspection that I do, an easy manipulation to make things unnatural for the bees, make it easier for the beekeeper, and to boost your colonies to make sure that you get the very best out of your bees.