[Kevinf]

We are starting our main nectar flow of the year and my top bar hive which was started from a package on April 17 has a fully built out brood area that is about 10 bars. As calculated previously on the forum, my bars are about 84% the size of a Langstroth deep frame.

They are also starting to draw out 4 bars at the end of the brood area for nectar/honey storage.

If I don't do anything I suspect that the brood area will become limited by the first bar of honey, so should I add a blank bar or two in the brood area to allow them to draw that out? Will that take resources from them storing nectar/honey? I don't have any drawn comb that I can just drop in.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[GregB]

We are starting our main nectar flow of the year and my top bar hive which was started from a package on April 17 has a fully built out brood area that is about 10 bars. As calculated previously on the forum, my bars are about 84% the size of a Langstroth deep frame.

They are also starting to draw out 4 bars at the end of the brood area for nectar/honey storage.

If I don't do anything I suspect that the brood area will become limited by the first bar of honey, so should I add a blank bar or two in the brood area to allow them to draw that out? Will that take resources from them storing nectar/honey? I don't have any drawn comb that I can just drop in.

Thanks,
Kevin

Just do it.
They will build very quickly during the flow.
Maybe you want to "checker-board" with 2-3 empty bars all along the hive (for both brood and honey).
Now is the time to build yourself more comb resources.