Paul will be talking about Single Brood Chamber management – What we’ve learned in 30 years of managing hives with one brood chamber

Paul has managed the Honey Bee Research Centre since 1987. His primary role is to manage honey bee colonies for research and teaching purposes. He provides research support for hive health science, training for students and beekeepers, coordinates and teaches beekeeping courses, and conducts facility tours for the general public.

Paul’s interests include bee breeding, beekeeping tool design and manufacture, beekeeping video production, medicinal use of hive products, and hive management techniques. Paul and the HBRC team have produced 77 beekeeping videos for the HBRC YouTube channel. They have been translated into 12 languages and have been viewed approximately 30 million times. He makes and sells Bee Belts, the tool belt for beekeepers.

Paul received the Eastern Apiculture Society, Roger A. Morse Extension Award in 2017, and was inducted into the Ontario Agriculture Hall of Fame in 2022.

Ontario beekeepers traditionally managed their colonies in two brood chambers. Most of us thought this was the only way it was possible to provide enough space for food stores and for brood production. Starting in the 1990’s many of us experimented with using single brood chambers. This is now the most common method of managing bee hives in our province. I will describe how to transition to singles, the timing considerations, and the pros and cons of this method of managing beehives.