I've been at this since last spring and now face a successful colony.
All indications are that the nectar flow is on, new bees are birthing and my hive is booming. I'm planning a thorough inspection tomorrow - Sunday - and I wonder if it's wise to swap the position of my two boxes. I've understood that the queen will move up the hive to lay. If I find her in the top box tomorrow, and there is less or no brood in the bottom, is it right to swap the positions of the boxes?
Depends, if there is so much nectar coming in that things are getting tight in the top box, I would reverse them. Otherwise, leave them to do what bees do. All my bees were in the top box going into almonds, they pushed all the queens down to the bottom box to lay. And honey-4-all was right, they packed in a lot of nectar from the almonds this year!
You might be too late to reverse, if the queen has brood in both boxes you are to late. We did ours a month ago, when the bottom box was empty of brood.
My suggestion is to add honey supers, our spring flow is on, in the east bay.
Top advise from both posters. Also be aware, that the bees are a lot more likely to swarm if they have brood in the top box and have to expand downwards, than if the brood is in the bottom box with an empty brood box above so they can expand upwards.
So what to do depends where your hive is up to. If the top box only has brood and the bottom box is empty, reverse. If both boxes full of brood, no point. But in any case, with swarming season coming up, keep most brood bottom & have room above for the queen to expand into easily, and add another box if they look like they could use it
I should add our swarm season has started in the bay area.
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