questions on brood chamber

[Sully1882]

I got my bees about 3 months ago from a cut out in Joplin, MO. I transferred over a lot of the brood comb to frames and they have repaired and fixed complete deep frames in the lower level except one side of the tenth frame which was plastic base that had wax covering. Last Saturday I sprayed it with sugar water to try to get them started there. About two months ago I added a second deep with a mix again of frames with base foundation and then comb patched in open frames to fit and held in place with rubber bands. They have repaired all of them up and have started drawing comb on some of the plastic foundation ones now too. I think 8 out of 10 are filled. I then added a medium about two weeks ago and they have even begun drawing comb on those frames. Question is: there is only brood in the first deep and the second deep is filled with nectar/honey. Is this normal? when they need more brood room will they move up and drain those cells to use for brood or should I only expect them to use the bottom deep? Their numbers have doubled since I transferred them from the cutout. They are doing great in my opinion. I'm just curious as how this works and what to expect. We have finally had some better temps and some rain here the last two weeks and there are lots of wild flowers starting to bloom. I am still feeding but plan to start cutting back as hopefully the nectar flow pics up. Any advice as to how this works would be great!

thanks in advance,

Sully

[Sully1882]

no ideas huh?

[Heavenly bees]

try picking up two or three brood frames up into the second brood camber and alternating with brood and empty drawn frames that will get the queen to move to up and lay into the empty frames in the second brood chamber

[Konrad]

You should stop feeding when honey super is on...as they draw comb, some syrup honey get's filled.
I always see center of deep's a bit open for brood,...nothing really unusually in what your'e seeing. I would take two frames of honey out and give them a couple new. Then I would reverse the boxes..top down, bees like to go up in winter, [warmer] there they will have all the food.

[AR Beekeeper]

I would keep feeding as long as you want comb drawn. The bees will ignore feed when the nectar flow is strong enough for them to collect what is necessary for them to survive.

The bees will draw comb better if you move the unfinished foundations from the outside to the middle of the box. Place them between frames of worker brood and the cells will be worker size and the queen will lay in them rapidly.

This time of the year the bees are storing winter food supplies and are not expanding the brood nest the way they do in the spring so they will fill the top super with food. As the other posts said, you can move a fame or two of brood up into the center of the top brood box and the queen will start using the second box to lay in. I don't know what the fall flow is like in your area, it is poor in my part of the state. Perhaps you can't expect much surplus to be gathered. You should join the local beekeepers association and the members will be able to answer many of your questions.

[Michael Bush]

I would feed if there isn't a flow and they aren't building up. Feeding constantly often leads them to swarm when they are not strong enough.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm#when