Thanks. Yeah, I've read those, but haven't gotten good at putting them into practice. I tend to do a fairly haphazard mix of checkerboarding (lots of drawn empty frames above the brood nest, not necessarily perfectly alternating) and OSBN (lots of space around the sides of the brood nest, but I don't cut holes in frames).
I'm surprised that this early in the year 3 deep 10-frame boxes of drawn frames isn't enough space, even after removing a nuc in early April. I can try doing things earlier but that means March when the average high is 45 degrees and we get over a foot of snow.
When I started beekeeping I thought varroa would be the big issue, followed by nosema, EFB, AFB, starvation, and cold/wet winters. Boy was I wrong! Those things are a piece of cake. The big issues are swarms and queens.
People say queen cups (not cells) aren't a sign of swarming, but I've never had a hive build cups and then not turn them into cells. People say drones are good, and not a sign of impending swarm, but I've never had a hive create a lot of drones and then not swarm. People say bearding isn't a sign of impending swarm, but again, I've never seen a big beard hanging off a hive not lead to a swarm within a month. The only hives I've had not swarm only had enough bees to cover 10 or fewer frames. Past that, they always swarm, no matter how many empty drawn combs they have all over the place. (Ok, my one Olivarez queen covered 20 or 30 frames before swarming, but that's just one exception out of ten or twenty colonies.)
I know most other people's experiences are different, so I must be doing something wrong, but I haven't figured out what yet.
I also don't understand beekeepers who regularly buy bees (other than queens). I could sell twice as many nucs as I have hives every year, no problem. It's all I can do to *prevent* increase. Honestly, if I put in the work to sell all those nucs I'd probably end up with more honey because I wouldn't have all these darn swarms. How do people end up with fewer bees than they started with? Mine grow like kudzu! I've already got twice as many hives as I overwintered this year, not even counting the ones in the trees.