hive question

[chevydmax04]

I was looking at the colony of bee's today that is the result of two very weak hives getting combined. Well I am happy to say they have exploded with growth, they reared a new queen and she is working overtime filling the brood box with brood! Problem is when I did the combine both hives had exhausted their food stores, and had virtually no brood on any frames, the weakest hive had 10 completely empty frames and the other hive was 90-95% empty comb. Well like I said that new queen took over and she has filled the top box 70%+ with brood, and the workers have stuffed the two lower brood boxes with honey, and I do mean stuffed! I added a super today on top to give them more space. Now that you know the background here is the question, all the brood is in the top brood box and the honey stores are in the bottom two boxes, my thought is move the brood to the bottom, am I correct?

[alpha6]

Reverse your brood boxes. If you have a third brood box I would put this on instead of a super, but the super will work if you leave it for them for winter.

[DRUR]

Probably, what happened is your new queen, began laying in the upper box, filling it with eggs, larva and sealed brood. Then the bees got on a good honey flow and had to place the honey in the lower box, because the upper had eggs, larva, and sealed brood.

Reverse and see what happens. Find out from local beeks what you usually winter with in your area. After you reverse it will probably be good to have them start backfilling the brood box that they are currently raising brood in so the brood area is contracted for winter time. Little early for that here, but our first freeze is not usually until the middle to end of November. I wouldn't add another deep box unless a third is required for winter in your area, which it very well may be. At this point I am guessing that you should be trying to get the brood nest somewhat backfilled to contract the brood area to about 3 deep frames.

[wcubed]

Having a little problem reading your status. You already have 3 " brood boxes". Are they all mediums? And the super added is a medium?

If so, put the brood on the bottom, and intersperse the honey and pollen in the other two boxes for them to grow into in the spring.

That still doesn't relieve you of responsibility for insuring backfilling of the broodnest at fall broodnest closeout. In your area, fall forage is often frosted out while brood is still present. You may need to feed at that time.

Walt W.

[RayMarler]

If you just leave them alone, they'll arrange things themselves the way they like it. As brood emerges above, more than likely they'll move honey up to fill the empty cells and keep pushing the queen down under the honey. Especially this time of year, they are preparing for winter. Leaving them alone lets them get everything all glued up and sealed in place the way they like it. Just make sure the hive as a whole has enough stores for over wintering in your area, the bees will put the stores where they want them.

[DRUR]

If you just leave them alone, they'll arrange things themselves the way they like it.

Not necessarily. Sometimes things happen and you need to assist and 'manage' the colony, by switching brood boxes, which is a common management practice.


As brood emerges above, more than likely they'll move honey up to fill the empty cells and keep pushing the queen down under the honey.

This is 'more than likely' correct. But the lower box could become honey/pollen backfilled. If you switch boxes and move the brood down low, which is the normal postition for winter preparation, then they can just finish capping the box with honey/pollen and work on contracting the winter brood/cluster area to about 3 frames (deep).


Leaving them alone lets them get everything all glued up and sealed in place the way they like it.

Yes, it does, less done the better.


the bees will put the stores where they want them.

Often, bees will backfill because of lack of space. This appears to be what has happened here as the top box was full of eggs/larva/brood so they were forced to store in the lower box. 21 days added for the last egg to emerge may not give them time to move things around. This often happens this time of year, as they are not building new comb but storing for winter. Sometimes they need help to save them time and effort and get things arranged like they need to be for winter.

[chevydmax04]

I already have 3 deeps on, the one colony had 2 deeps an the other colony had one. Also I added a medium super to the stack yesterday because the three deeps were close to full. This colony did a 180 from 6 weeks ago when all the frames were empty.

[Beeslave]

Put the brood deep underneath the 2 pollen honey supers and leave the super on top if the other 2 deeps are full. If they are not full leave the super off unless you want to make some dark honey and then feed your bees in 2 wks. By looking at the future forecast for WI we have 7-14 days of decent flow yet.