Lesson Learned on Inserting blank Frames into Super

[Don'tWorryBeeHappy]

So, I had a hive that had a deep and 2 mediums that were pretty full, so I decided to add a another med super that had no foundation. Given how early in the year it was, I thought it might help prevent swarming if I distributed the blank frames between the 3 med honey supers. I checked yesterday and they did draw out frames only they drew out the frames next to the blank ones to fill in the space and left the blank ones pretty empty. Dang. Is this normal and you really need to have all the frames in a super at the same level of "drawn out"?

[Dana]

You need to put the empty frames either between brood combs or *capped* honey. They would've probably done the same thing even if you had used foundation.

[Michael Bush]

In a super it is normal and yes they would have done the same even with foundation. They just fatten a honey comb. They will not do this if the comb is capped already or with brood comb. Then they will draw the new comb out the right depth.

[bison]

The obvious question that arises then is what you do if you're in the OP's situation of having some mixture of drawn and undrawn frames for a super. Clearly it looks like the ideal situation is to use either all drawn or all undrawn, but if you have to use a mixture do you just hope for the best? Seems as though at the least you'd want to put all the drawn frames next to each other and same for the undrawn.

[beedeetee]

The obvious question that arises then is what you do if you're in the OP's situation of having some mixture of drawn and undrawn frames for a super.

You can put new frames between frames of capped brood in the brood box to get new brood frames drawn. In honey supers, I cycle new frames between frames that are capped or are being capped. If you don't have capped frames yet, I would say that you are adding new supers too early.