Brood box full of honey
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It is not a brood box if it s full of honey.
It is supposed to be a brood box. I have a trap-out I took off about 6 lbs of bees today. They could use a couple of frames. I will extract 6 and give them 2 leaving two in the hive. There is a flow on and it should be getting better soon.
Here our main flow is in the spring. It's the only time I can get comb drawn. We have some maintenance flows thru the summer but rarely much of a fall flow.
When the top box is full but they won't draw the super ill take 4 or 6 frames, extract and put them right back in. When they're full of nectar I take the others. Repeat until the flow slows and then I stop taking any leaving them with a full deep.
I can often get 8 deep frames of honey that I wouldent get otherwise.
When the top box is full but they won't draw the super ill take 4 or 6 frames, extract and put them right back in. When they're full of nectar I take the others. Repeat until the flow slows and then I stop taking any leaving them with a full deep.
I can often get 8 deep frames of honey that I wouldent get otherwise.
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Any box full of honey can only be a high class problem.
If he can get them out of the hive.
It shouldn't be that hard once you get the bees out. Break lose the top bars and flip the box over and dump the frames all at once. Actually this is pretty much what we did for all the boxes extracting Mark's honey in New Hartford.If he can get them out of the hive.
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You would so quickly extract frames of honey that aren't capped? Or is it capped?
When I weed out the brood box of honey frames, and I'm not saying I'm all that knowledgeable about it, but I just checkerboard them into the honey supers, and if I run out of space, leaving several empties in the supers too, I'll add another super on top and keep going. Summer is the time for them to spread out with no worries, and you certainly want to provide plenty of room for honey making.
I learned on the Ohio State webinar on The Chemistry of Honey the other day that bees will put nectar in the brood box until it's down to around 20% moisture, and then move it up to dry it out more, and when it's 18%, they cap it. That info may still be available if you go to the Ohio State website. Anyway, that made me think maybe honey in the brood box is part of their process and I should just leave it there, except that I refuse to let the brood box get honey bound because I don't want swarms. But it did make me realize that they do have a system and maybe I should stop shuffling their frames like a deck of cards.
When I weed out the brood box of honey frames, and I'm not saying I'm all that knowledgeable about it, but I just checkerboard them into the honey supers, and if I run out of space, leaving several empties in the supers too, I'll add another super on top and keep going. Summer is the time for them to spread out with no worries, and you certainly want to provide plenty of room for honey making.
I learned on the Ohio State webinar on The Chemistry of Honey the other day that bees will put nectar in the brood box until it's down to around 20% moisture, and then move it up to dry it out more, and when it's 18%, they cap it. That info may still be available if you go to the Ohio State website. Anyway, that made me think maybe honey in the brood box is part of their process and I should just leave it there, except that I refuse to let the brood box get honey bound because I don't want swarms. But it did make me realize that they do have a system and maybe I should stop shuffling their frames like a deck of cards.
You could pull a couple of frames of brood up from the bottom box and put two frames of honey on the outsides down in the bottom. That might encourage them to expand the brood nest upward.
Are they queenright? I find this happens a lot when they swarm during a flow. As the brood in the top boxes hatches they fill it in.
Are they queenright? I find this happens a lot when they swarm during a flow. As the brood in the top boxes hatches they fill it in.
Sounds like a lot of fuss over a colony that is exactly where they should be for this time of the year by their instincts. Our bees are, by their heritage, forest dwellers. Not much fall flow in the extended forest. By their instincts, they must get full season repro and stores done on the spring flow.
In late winter expansion into the upper deep gets the extra bees needed to populate the repro swarm. Prior to swarm commit, the upper brood box is backfilled to get a leg up on resupply of winter stores. On the trail off of main flow, cells are extended, filled and capped for winter stores. That's where they are now, and where they should be.
If wolfer can pilfer a few frames for his use, and not jeopardize the colony survival, no harm is done.
Walt
In late winter expansion into the upper deep gets the extra bees needed to populate the repro swarm. Prior to swarm commit, the upper brood box is backfilled to get a leg up on resupply of winter stores. On the trail off of main flow, cells are extended, filled and capped for winter stores. That's where they are now, and where they should be.
If wolfer can pilfer a few frames for his use, and not jeopardize the colony survival, no harm is done.
Walt
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