Too many deeps, too much honey

[romduck]

I think that I'm figuring out what I've done wrong BUT I've not yet figured out how to makes things right. :roll:

In my area the major honey flow comes from Purple Loosetrife and goldenrod late in the season so I hadn't been checking my two hives that often.

We've had a great great Summer for flowers and I think that gave me an unanticipated honey flow. The two hives were two deeps high in June (usually enough) and I found them to be chock full O' honey, little room for brood. So I put another deep on each hive to give the queen more room to lay.

I didn't want to put on honey supers thinking that if I
a) used a queen excluder she would still feel cramped and would encourage swarming.
b) not use a queen excluder and she would scamper all the way up and start laying brood in the open, drawn cells that I had just provided.

Now what I have is two hives filled with 3 deeps each brood AND honey, but interstpersed in a very odd pattern (frames with one side capped honey, other side brood/pollen/honey, next fram all honey, next frame both sides brood/pollen/honey).

Both hives seem othewise healthy, but I don't want to go into Fall/Winter with three deeps each. I tried that last year with a very healthy hive and it didn't do too well over Winter. I'm assuming it had just too much to try to keep warm in those three deeps.

:?: Where should I go from here? Is there a proper way to get rid of that third deep as the end of the season draws near? If I put on honey supers would the girls start moving honey or nectar from the deeps to up top?

Both hives seem to be doing so well, I'm hoping that I can correct my error before we go into Fall.

[Michael Bush]

You can consolidate the brood nest anytime you like by putting all the frames with brood in them in together in the same box. I wouldn't worry about it. Many people running three deeps overwinter in three deeps. The old ABC XYZ of Beeculture editions all refer to this third deep as a "food chamber" and have an entire section on the subject.

[beebarf]

I was forced into running 2 deep/1 med broodchamber last year, and I always will from now on. They had so much room they didnt build one swarm cell all year, also the spring build up was very fast, I got all the fruit tree crops this year, Ive already pulled 1 deep and 1 medium full of honey, the other deep I put on 2 week ago is almost full already with blackberry honey. now the 10 acre field of white clover across the street is in full bloom, and every girl in the hive is over there. Im seriously looking at about 350-400lbs of honey out of 1 hive extimated by years end.

[Michael Bush]

Try four mediums. smile.gif

[RAlex]

If you dont want to keep 3 deeps on why not pull some of the capped deep frames and extract them ?Checkerboarding helps to keep them from thinking swarm. Another thought is that a hive over wintered in 3 deeps are a chinch to split in the spring as the bottom is always almost empty cept for some pollen.Hope this helps ...Rick

[Nick Noyes]

Put an excluder between the 2nd and 3rd deep wait a couple days and make sure the queens in the bottom 2. By fall all the brood in 3rd box should be hatched and hopefully full of honey.

[dickm]

>>>>>>I'm assuming it had just too much to try to keep warm in those three deeps<<<<<<

They don't heat the hive. It would be hopeless. 2" outside the cluster it's a s cold as it is outside. I'd a lot rather have too much honey on than not enough. Too often I've seen them "chimney" up through the stores and die at the top because they didn't get a break in the weather to move sideways. I've got Lymes again and as a back-up plan I'm prepared to leave a lot of honey on this year and harvest in the spring.

I've got 7 hives in Warren, Ct. Hell of a year isn't it?

Dickm

[romduck]

Thanks for all the replies.

I think that I'm going to rearrange the frames a bit and see how many are capped honey and then decide to extract or not.

I probably should have made note of that before, when I just about pulled the whole hive apart. Lesson learned.

Thanks for the help again Dick. You're right indeed. Its a hell of a year.

Did I mention that I've also got my girlfriend helping me repair and paint all my hives and equipment so now I have supers with sunflowers and bees all over them?

A small price to pay for the assistance and I don't think the bees mind!

[newbee 101]

Don't worry dickm, I will help you get that honey off them hives! tongue.gif