I just opened up my colony after a long winter, and things look good--queen is there, still lots of honey left, bees in good quantity. This is my first full year, though, and I was not sure about the pattern of eating going on in there.
There is still a number of frames with honey in the deep boxes at the base of the hive, though the bees seem to currently be targeting the top super for feeding. Is there a reason for this and should I do anything about it? I feel like I want to get them all down into the lower boxes to finish cleaning those out, and I believe that I've heard that bees tend to work upwards better than they work downwards.
Should I make sure the queen is down in the lower boxes and put an excluder in between the second deep super and the top medium one? Or is it best to wait to do something like this till a little later in the spring? I am concerned about the medium super becoming a site for brood rearing rather than the bottom brood box.
There is still a number of frames with honey in the deep boxes at the base of the hive, though the bees seem to currently be targeting the top super for feeding. Is there a reason for this and should I do anything about it? I feel like I want to get them all down into the lower boxes to finish cleaning those out, and I believe that I've heard that bees tend to work upwards better than they work downwards.
Should I make sure the queen is down in the lower boxes and put an excluder in between the second deep super and the top medium one? Or is it best to wait to do something like this till a little later in the spring? I am concerned about the medium super becoming a site for brood rearing rather than the bottom brood box.