My bees ignoring the supers.

[gashmore]

I only have one hive and this is my first full season so I have spent more time in the books than the hives but still have questions. Over the last couple of months or so I have noticed something and can't figure out what to do. The hive is currently two deeps and a super. In early May I found the upper deep full of honey and some brood so added a super. First of June I found the upper deep full of honey including the old brood cells but the super empty. Worried that the queen was getting crowded I removed four frames of honey from the upper deep, moved three brood frames up from the lower and replaced them with new foundation and one new foundation in the upper deep. Yesterday I found that the foundation in the lower deep had been drawn out and about half full of brood but the upper deep was again full of honey and no brood. The super was still empty.

Is there a strategy to get the queen to use both deeps and force honey storage into the supers? I have read that you can bait the super with some drawn comb but all I have is foundation for the supers. I was hoping to get at least a little cut comb this fall.

[garyk1398]

I'm sure more experienced beeks will chime in but here is my two cents. Sounds like the upper deep is full of honey. What'd I'd do is move it above the super. I'd replace it with another deep with foundation (drawn out if possible). Many new keepers, like you, in my area are experiences the same deal with all this abundance of honey and their bees are becoming honey bound and likely will swarm because of it. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[mrspock]

I've been considering the same.

What I've done is spray a mixture of feed and HBH on the top bars of the super, in an effort to draw them up.

Bees are up in the super now, but it's unclear if that's what they were going to do anyhow, or if the HBH feed sped things up.

[gashmore]

I'm really concerned about them trying to swarm though I don't see any signs of it yet. I have a new deep ready to add. I will put it above the bottom deep then the super and the full deep on top. I have to do it early in the morning because with no breeze even this ventilated bee suit is insufferable by 9AM. I don't see how real beeks can make it through more than a few hives in this weather.