i guess i should be more specific. I am running a deep and medium as a brood chamber and upon an inspoection last week the deep was open for the queen to lay in and most of the medium still had honey in it(or 2:1 syrup). So I just want to leave that medium on and put supers on top and hope they consume most of that before the flow?
Sounds to me like they are a ways off from needing supers, you would want them to use up the food in the medium for producing brood in the lower deep first, then the queen will be able to move up into the medium. I think your bee/brood population needs to be a bit larger before adding any supers. John
jsharum, how long till you get a decent flow in your area? You probably have some early things blooming (trees, dandelions) by now down there. I agree, you don't want them to back fill the brood nest before supering, its kind of a close call to make, but I'm thinking if the queen is currently laying good in the deep she should make her way into the medium as that food is used up. Is the medium stuffed full at this point, or is there some empty cells available? John
tore into the hives...hive number one was jam packed w bees and they had even built wax and laid larva inbetween the upper and lower frames. It appeared most of the medium was jam packed w brood so i reversed boxes and threw on a super. They had some honey stores but i wouldnt say it was a lot.
Hive number two had a lot of honey in the mudium, infact i removed three ugly drawn frames packed of honey and replaced them with three undrawn frames. Never saw the queen and there was a little brood activity and a ton of pollen stored up. I did not reverse these boxes due to the meduim having lots of stores and the deep being fairly open. I also did not super this box.
Suggestions? Opinions?
Sounds like you know what your about. any idea why the one queen didn't have a lot of brood? Is it a good brood pattern or a spotty one? You don't want to replace a queen because the hive is a little slower to build up, but if they continue being slow to build, it might be time for a new queen.
that hive has always been slower. I got it as a small swarm last year and requeened it and my other hive at th same time. Ill keep an eye on it and if it never gets a good pattern ill requeen it again. thanks for the help sir. I also removed the cappings from three frames i removed so the bees can gather that honey back to the hives. Good or bad idea?
Where are the uncapped frames? I don't think I would leave them out in the open as it might get a lot of robbing started. You could put them in a super on top so they can be utilized if needed. They are money in the bank otherwise, just leave them on the hive so it is protected from wax worms, small hive beetles etc. If you extracted the rest, let them clean up the supers. It will stimulate the bees and aid in keeping varmints out of boxes. It is supposed to get to -25 tonight here and I am not talking wind chill! I am really jealous of anyone with bees flying!
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