Rookie question

[andy12]

I began beekeeping this year. Have one new hive consisting of two deep chambers and one shallow super. The queen seems to be doing great. lots of brood all summer.
Early on the girls drew comb on both sides of all ten frames of the lower deep and both sides of eight frames plus one side of the ninth frame in the upper deep.
I added the shallow super eight weeks ago and since then no new comb has been drawn.
I followed someones advice five weeks ago and removed the queen excluder, then put the shallow super between the two deeps.Hoping to induce the bees to draw comb in the shallow.
No comb has been drwn in the shallow.
Someone suggested that I put the shallow back on top of the two deeps, but remove one frame from the upper deep and replace it with one frame of foundation from the shallow super. the point being to at last get some honey to harvest instead of nothing.
Another suggestion I got was to feed syrup to the bees to stimulate them to draw more comb to store syrup honey.
I have been told by someone that my bees will probably not produce any excess honey for me to harvest this year.
It seems that the more people I ask the more conflicting advice I get.
My question to this forum is.
What can I do to get my bees to draw comb and fill it in the shallow super this year.
They are still foraging and bringing home pollen and nectar, raising a good amount of brood.
I expect we have at least six weeks of asters and goldenrods and hope to find a way to reap the benefits if I possibly can.
I am new to beekeeping an any advice is appreciated.
Thanks, Andy tongue.gif

[bjerm2]

I would venture a guess that your temps at night are getting cool and the honey flow is weaning. Bees need warm temps and lots of honey coming in to draw out comb. Books state somewhere about 5 lbs of honey for 1 lbs of wax. Take off the super and let them fill up the deeps. Keep the brood together. Next year you can give them the shallow and a few more on top of that.
Dan

[iddee]

Do as bjerm2 says, or leave the super on the very top and see what happens. It won't hurt to store it there if your hive is strong and you have only foundation in it, unless you have SHB. If you have SHB, then you want as little unused space as possible. The bees know when they need more comb and will make it when and only when they need it.

[Michael Bush]

Your bees may not make any honey the first year. Your bees may make honey the first year. This is not conflicting advice. It's the truth. They may or they may not. If there is no flow they will not draw wax. If the temperature is too low they will not draw wax. If there are not enough bees they will not draw wax.

If the temps are cold then feeding MAY stimulate them to draw some wax, but they will also store the sugar syrup in the combs.

[MichaelW]

If they store too much syrup in the existing comb it will limit brood production which is important now for overwintering. So if you feed for comb building you need to be very careful not to make them "honey bound" or you will be doing more damage than good.

[Brent Bean]

How much rain have you gotten this summer? Here in Michigan it has been very hot and dry. We have a good crop of aster and goldenrod right now, but I think the dry weather has limited the amount of nectar the plants can give up. Usually by now I have that sour mash smell of goldenrod being stored away. What I am getting at is even if it looks like good forage going on they might not be harvesting as much as they could, along with cooler nights and shorter days. This could limit wax production With your hives at maximum population they are also consuming a lot of food. Which takes away from the energy of wax making. Here in July we had rain and things started booming, but August very little and things slowed down.