Put on a honey super
Bottom deep full of brood, top deep full of honey - not feeding
Im just starting my second season as a beek and am noticing what seems like a strange separation in one of my hives. I put a second deep on a few months ago and the bees have been working it pretty well. They initially started with some brood up top but the last couple of inspections I saw that they seemed to be slowing down on brood production in the top deep. This last inspection I see almost a perfect separation of brood and honey on the bottom and the top. The top is almost completely full of honey while the bottom deep is almost completely full of brood. I haven't fed them in months. Otherwise the hive is very active and seems healthy. I waited until they were about 7 1/2 frames full on the bottom before I added the second. Why so little brood in the top and what should I do, if anything?
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Add a super like Harold said. Are there any capped frames of honey you can replace with drawn comb or foundation? Also keep any eye on the bottom deep for swarm cells!
Both Harold and SRatcliff are exactly right. if the top box fills completely with honey the queen senses the honey ceiling and is likely to lay an egg for a replacement queen, a bunch of drones, and swarm on out of there
Oh boy, that would be a real bummer! The one strong hive I had ended up swarming down to almost nothing this year. This hive was started from a swarm from that hive and is now the dominant of the two. I thought I had gotten past the swarm season!Both Harold and SRatcliff are exactly right. if the top box fills completely with honey the queen senses the honey ceiling and is likely to lay an egg for a replacement queen, a bunch of drones, and swarm on out of there
I just put on a honey super during the inspection today and could pull some capped frames and replace with drawn comb. Should I go back down into the bottom deep tomorrow and look for swarm cells? If I can find the queen and I do see swarm cells, should I go ahead and cut them out?
Im headed out of town for a week on Tuesday. It makes me nervous to leave if the could be swarming soon.
If you see eggs I would probably cut out the cells.
Is that why I found two complete drone brood frames in my swarmed hive? One I brought in to the freezer, the other I couldn't find after seeing it, but I'm glad it was left out there because now that the hive swarmed there will be many suitors for the newly hatched queen(s).Both Harold and SRatcliff are exactly right. if the top box fills completely with honey the queen senses the honey ceiling and is likely to lay an egg for a replacement queen, a bunch of drones, and swarm on out of there
I was wondering how I ended up with 2 full drone brood frames in there.
If I were you, I'd go out there and "thin" the frames of honey by placing them all over the new super (actually I'd put on more than one super since you'll be away). I'd open up both the brood box and the honey boxes by getting honey out of there and spread out more, so they don't feel crowded.Im headed out of town for a week on Tuesday. It makes me nervous to leave if the could be swarming soon.
I wouldn't get rid of swarm cells because if they have already decided to swarm and they do, you could be left queenless.
Update: I did a fairly thorough inspection today and found the queen. I didn't see any swarm cells though its always possible that I missed one. Looks as though I may have caught it in time. I did add a bit of space in the 2nd deep (though didn't have a whole lot to work with) and also added a honey super. Hopefully that will give them enough space!
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