Brood in All Boxes

[Flyman]

I have 2 boomer hives of Italians that overwintered nicely. As the season progressed, I added mediums of foundation till I am at the current configuration: 1 deep, 3 mediums. Pulled a super of honey of of each and put the wet back for cleanup. The problem (i guess) is that there is brood in all the supers now (maybe 80 percent brood), the deep is empty of brood and appears to be the pollen storage of choice. I am not using excluders obviously.

Will the brood expand back down and backfill with honey or should I do something to make this happen? Thought about moving the wet super to the bottom for a pollen box and see what this would do. Looking for wisdom.

Tom

[Joseph Clemens]

Perhaps, give some consideration to switching to the use of one size super for everything, that way you can manipulate frames and supers to suit yourself rather than letting the bees decide for themselves. Rather than moving the configuration of your supers, consider moving the location of your entrance(s).

[tecumseh]

flyman writes:
Will the brood expand back down and backfill with honey or should I do something to make this happen? Thought about moving the wet super to the bottom for a pollen box and see what this would do. Looking for wisdom.

tecumseh suggest: yes they will back fill the lower box and no over no reasonable time period will the queen move back down to rear brood in this bottom box. unless you manipulate these hives I would give it perhaps 30 to 45 days before total demise of both**. left in it current position this will become target number one for shb and wax moth. trust me on this one... I have experienced this here on more occasions than I would like to admit... and typically it is always the best hives in the yard.

I would suggest... consolidate all brood in 'super' frames and place these at bottom of stack. then place the deep on top of this, then the wet (likely formerly wet*) supers on top.

I sometime leave these in this inverted position all the way thru winter.

*a wet super should never be placed at the bottom of the stack since in the wet condition this will highly encourge robbing.

**boxs/frames with lots of pollen, no brood and little nectar are not guarded as well as are boxs with lots of brood and nectar.

ps... how are your other hive a doin' ?

[Flyman]

Thanks Gene, I will rearrange the hives this morning. Your right about the pollen box not being guarded. It's almost vacant of bees hanging around. Seems like they only pass through to get to the other boxes.

My "other hives" are doing well. They didn't build up enough to make a crop, but they are a good box of bees. Don't know what the summer flow is going to be like around here. Looks like the Mesquite is a no show this year.

In fact, all the MH (about 15 hives) seem to only build out the box and then kind of stop. The best hives were mutt italians and Weaver All-Stars. Any suggestions for "over summering". May be a long time till fall, starting to get a little dry around here.

Tom

[tecumseh]

tom:
the summer season will be fairly well defined by the frequency of rain. if the rain come at acceptable intervals they will fairly well maintain themselves. if not then a bit of leveling and fall feeding is my normal strategy.

[Ross]

I'll give you a slightly different answer that may amount to the same thing. IF you have a honey flow at this point, they will push the queen back down the stack as they build the honey cap. I say IF, because most of our honey flow is over unless the mesquites up this way decide to bloom (nothing yet) or you are on cotton. Mine are on soybeans and are getting a minor flow from it, but nothing to write home about. I pulled 500#s yesterday.

[Jim Fischer]

For future reference, putting supers back on "for cleanup" as
opposed to "for a refill" can be eased by the simple precaution
of putting the supers on upside down.

One need to tie some strong twine around them to keep the
frames in the boxes, but the bees hate it when the combs are
slanted upside down, and neither store nectar in the them,
nor lay eggs in them.

But queen excluders do have their place, and your scenario seems
to be one of them. Of course advocating queen excluders here
on BeeSource is a form of sacrilege. :)

[Flyman]

Thanks ET.

Ross, at this point I would say we have a none to minor flow. All the bees are hanging around the porch with nothing to do. Although I am way out in the country, there is no cotton, soy, etc within 3 to 5 miles. Mostly pasture and mesquite. It the mesquite would bloom it would be great! 500 lbs would be sweet (pardon the pun):).

[Flyman]

Ross, went out and looked at the mesquite close today. Yes, it is blooming (my trees at least) but only in the top 30+ percent of the taller ones. Every once in a while there is a straggler bloom lower. Not a super bloom, but we will take it and the bees are really working (looking through binoculars). Coincides with my observation regarding the bees being a little busier in the last few days. Maybe there's hope:D.

[Ross]

I guess I'll hook up the trailer and head your way this week. Mine are still loaded. We have a pasture NW of Terrell.

[odfrank]

:eek: Of course advocating queen excluders here
on BeeSource is a form of sacrilege. :):eek:

[Ross]

Each to his own. If it works for you, nough said.