Do I add another deep or a honey super?

**bobmarlojill** · 06-19-2012, 11:26 AM

I have a new hive that is ready to expand ( I have 10 frame Lang brood box right now)..... I need to add another..... Do I add another brood box
or do I add the honey super? Last year I was in this same position and added a brood box so the queen would keep expanding the hive.....but instead
they filled the whole deep with honey and then swarmed. I want to make sure I do what I need to make them happy and stay there.

**Vance G** · 06-19-2012, 01:33 PM

Pull a middle frame of brood and put it up in the new brood box. that should pull them up into the upper deep. Make sure to move your very outside frames in too so the bees fully draw them out. Did your hive that swarmed make the winter? Always try to figure out what happened last year teaches you. That is hard because the beed are different every year, but there are patterns. That is why it is fun playing with stinging insects and being above the crowd!

**bobmarlojill** · 06-20-2012, 10:17 AM

it did make it through the winter but did very poorly this spring....very liitle random brood....had it open one day and watched a
working laying the eggs....elimenated her and requeened the hive and now the hive is recovering nicely.

**Acebird** · 06-20-2012, 01:52 PM

It is not going to make a difference (deep or super) if you don't keep up with the bees filling the boxes.

**Peter** · 06-20-2012, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by bobmarlojill

I have a new hive that is ready to expand ( I have 10 frame Lang brood box right now)..... I need to add another..... Do I add another brood box
or do I add the honey super? Last year I was in this same position and added a brood box so the queen would keep expanding the hive.....but instead
they filled the whole deep with honey and then swarmed. I want to make sure I do what I need to make them happy and stay there.

I have sort of the same issue. Started a package May 2nd in a Lang witha deep with 10 drawn frames 2 of which had some honey from deadouts, no other feeding. Added a second deep with 10 drawn frames around June 1st. Checked yesterday and there is brood in the center 8 frames of the top deep, all the way from the bottom of the frames to the top, strangely however the middle of the center frames top to botom were empty. I was planning on adding a honey super this weekend as Linden is just coming to bloom however as I don't typically use excluders and they have brood all the way to top of the upper deep frames with no honey cap I'm wondering if maybe I should add a 3rd deep, will have to be undrawn foundation this time. Never actually seen a package fill 2 deeps in less than 2 months before.

**Acebird** · 06-20-2012, 02:37 PM

Put on a super and let them fill that. If you have another hive that has a full honey super you could rob that and put an empty one on top.

**Peter** · 06-20-2012, 03:26 PM

I'm thinking that if I add a super they may well just fill it with brood.

**Acebird** · 06-21-2012, 01:56 PM

Great, then put another on, and another, and another...
They won't keep filling it with brood. They will get to a population where more honey will be coming in than they consume and then they will store it in the top. The trick is to not put new boxes of foundation on until they fill the top box 80% full. If you do they might just use the center frames and not the outside frames.