I need patience I think?

[HoneyMidwife]

I had the fortune of buying a nuc from an awesome beekeeper who placed it for me in my deep super. I had planned to use all mediums, but did 1 deep for the brood box. I brought them home on 3/24. At that time there were 4 frame of brood and 1 frame of honey. 2 weeks ago, I placed my empty medium on top of the box because 80% of the frames had activity. The bees do not seem to be doing any work up there yet, am I just being impatient? How long should it be before they move up? I guess I am worried because I fed them for 1 week and then did not continue because here in Virginia our nectar and pollen are abundant. Are they slow because I am not feeding them?

There is 1 frame in the deep that hasn't been touched yet and the population is very heavy. I do find bees up in the medium super but nothing is going on with the foundation.

Any advice from all of you experienced folks? I would guess I am just being impatient and the bees do not function on my timetable. Thanks for your time.

[oregonbeek]

Are you using wax or plastic foundation?

At least for my bees (russian/carniolan hybrid), they just refused to go up into the 2nd box until I finally gave in and got some wax foundation frames. After I did that they went crazy building out wax.


99% of people on these forums will probably just tell you to be patient though

[MrHappy]

A few tricks I've heard is to place one of the honeys up top(you can't because of deep) or spritz the frames with 1:1 syrup. I didn't do it for the first few boxes and it took 3 months to fill out 2 boxes(feeding the whole time). I spritzed the next box and it took 2 weeks to fill it out(still feeding). I have head from tons of people to feed until all frames are filled. I think of it as, they need nectar/syrup to make the wax, why not give them all the sugar they want to make the wax so they can put the nectar in it. I just want to make sure they get enough stored before winter. Started in Feb with a nuc and already have 3 meds almost full.

[RayMarler]

I think you probably have good flows now so I think you just need a little patience. I would move the empty frame in the bottom box towards the center a space or two to get them drawing it out. Many times when you add a super, the'll leave the outter two frames in the bottom box un-drawn or just partially drawn, when you are using 10 frame boxes. The bees will crowd the bottom box before they start drawing above, so give them a bit more time. I'ts only been just under a month since they were a nuc, I think it sounds like they are doing well.