Is everything OK?

[Mimi's Bees]

This is my first year and my one hive is like my first child---I just can't leave it alone. My concern: I have two deep brood boxes, a queen excluder and a super. The super has been on about five weeks and while there are many, many bees in the super, there is no drawn comb. I checked the top brood box and noticed tons of bees, lots of eggs, larva and capped brood in the middle seven and one-half frames, but the outside frames are empty.

The queen is active and I seem to have more bees every time I check, but there doesn't seem to be enough honey for their winter store. Is this normal or do I have a problem? My original bee order was for three pounds and I suspect there were more dead bees than I realized when they arrived. I of course, would like some honey this year, but now I am really concerned about getting the colony throught the winter. In coastal NC we usually have brief, mild winters. Do I need help?

Mimi's Bees

[Sundance]

I'm not familiar with the flow in your
area and others will add info.

I suspect you are in a time of little or
no nectar flow. If your deeps are light,
then I would pull the super and feed them.

If there is an expected flow to come you
could feed them 2:1 and encourage brood
rearing. Then if a flow comes you can
pull the feeder and add the super.

2:1 is 2 parts water, 1 part sugar.

Going into winter I go to 1:1 and 1:2.

Sounds like you are having a blast. I
would guess that one deep will winter
fine in your area.

[beegee]

Take the excluder and the bottom deep off, unless the bees are so populous that they need the room in the deep. If the bottom deep is pretty much empty, transfer any frames of brood or frames of drawn comb from the deep you remove to the one the brood is being reared. Keep any brood frames next to the brood cluster. If they aren't drawing the outside frames in the deep, rotate one at a time to a position nearer the brood nest, as long as you don't have to divide the brood nest to do it. I'd feed them 1:1 and some pollen patties if there is no pollen being brought in. Once they have they are stimulated by adequate food for brood rearing, they will be stimulated to draw comb. Once they are filling the deep with brood in the center and have stored some honey in the outside frames, they will move up into the super. If you get a little brood in your honey super it will be OK. You'll probably want to leave them at least one super for winter stores. I doubt you should expect any table honey this year. Plan on having at least 2(3-4 would be better better) hives for next year. That makes it easier to manipulate and balance hives.

[Mr T-Bone]

I second taking the excluder off. I had the same problem until I removed the excluder, then they built comb like gangbusters.

[Mimi's Bees]

Thanks for the advice. If it stops raining here I will remove the excluder and check on them next week. The girls are bringing in plenty of pollen but I'm not sure about the nectar. I think I'll hold off feeding them till next week.

Thanks again,

Mimi's Bees