Spring swap of brood box ?

[kmartin]

This is my second year and I have a question about spring management.

I've read about swapping the bottom brood box with the 2nd box, pollen related I think (Walt??). I did not do that this spring. This week I dug into the bottom brood box on 2 hives, out of 4. Found no brood, very little honey on edges and a LOT of cells with pollen. Both hives seem to be doing well (capped, open brood in second box, small amount of both in third), one has already produced 50lbs with another est 18lbs capped. Small amount of SHB but no damage evident.

My question is, what do I do with all the frames that appear to be 'pollen bound'? My current leaning is to do nothing right now, but next year do the swap. Maybe checkboard at the same time.

I would appreciate any feedback.

BTW, I'm using 8 frame mediums.

Thanks
Ken

[high rate of speed]

The reason we swap the boxes is for strenght.Bees come up faster than they go down.

[RayMarler]

by early spring, that pollen just might be mostly gone, eaten by the bees for late fall brood rearing and winter stores and early spring buildup. just a thought. I'm going to leave all my pollen frames on the hives this year and see what happens by spring.