Moving the queen down

[Aisha]

I have read about hive management that involves keeping the queen down in the lower brood chamber(s) esp. when you don't want to use a queen excluder.

Right now my queen is trying to get up into a honey super and lay.

If I just move her and the frame she is on down into the lower brood box, will she then stay put and ever so slowly make her way up again?

Or does the queen roam around all the boxes looking for empty cells to lay in?

[ScadsOBees]

Or does the queen roam around all the boxes looking for empty cells to lay in?

Pretty much. The only way to (mostly) guarantee that the queen will not lay in the supers is to use excluders. If your honey supers are drawn out then that shouldn't have much or any affect on the honey production.

Once you have the super with honey or nectar in most cells then she won't go up there as quick, but I have foundationless frames in my honey supers which are drawn out as drone cells, and she will go past lots of honey to lay those up.

Rick

[Ravenseye]

I had that problem last year. Until the honey super got full, she would lay up there. Once it was full of honey, she stayed down under....wouldn't cross the capped honey frames.

[Bizzybee]

How is this hive set up? A deep and a super? If that's the case I would expect to have a fit trying to keep her from laying in the super as long as cells are open there. Using a deep and at least one medium for brood above the deep eliminates a lot of problems but certainly not always. But a single brood chamber isn't nearly enough room for her without and exluder. Or do what your doing now.

[arthur]

I had the same question. Whether one deep brood was enough brood, and whether I should put my empty medium super in the middle of my hive (with almost full shallow on top), or put the medium on top. I wonder if they need more brood space.

[Aisha]

How is this hive set up? A deep and a super?

I have all medium boxes. I have two brood boxes and I'm hoping for 2 honey supers. I may have to give her 3 brood boxes since she is so enthusiastic about laying down eggs, but I don't want my hive to get really tall. 5 boxes is definitely the max for my height and strength (5'6").

I may have to eventually give some of her brood frames to my 2 smaller hives to keep this hive manageable. It's just super-productive...with bees at least.

[Quint Randle]

Three medium boxes is kind of the standard. That is equal to two deeps.

Quint