They had 2 undrawn frames in their top box, so I don't think I was too late. They have not touched the honey super yet. in a few weeks, we will be in a dearth, so I was wondering if the bees were purposely slowing brood production. The goldenrod won't get going until mid September.
Honey Bound
All,
I have a hive that is definitely honey bound.
It is a swarm that I caught in April and it is now in a 10 frame double deep and doing great. There were 2 undrawn frames in the top box. Each box had several frames with brood or eggs that was totally surrounded by nectar. The eggs/brood was in two small patches on the frame surrounded by a sea of nectar. It had about 4-5 frames in this configuration. I also saw 1 frame was wall-to-wall capped drone cells and the rest of the frames were stores.
I saw the queen and there were no queen cups or swarm cells found. I added a medium honey super with no drawn frames.
So what is happening? The workers definitely want the queen to quit laying but why? Are they preparing for the upcoming dearth or do they want to start swarm prep? Should I do anything else to this hive?
Thanks in advance!
I have a hive that is definitely honey bound.
It is a swarm that I caught in April and it is now in a 10 frame double deep and doing great. There were 2 undrawn frames in the top box. Each box had several frames with brood or eggs that was totally surrounded by nectar. The eggs/brood was in two small patches on the frame surrounded by a sea of nectar. It had about 4-5 frames in this configuration. I also saw 1 frame was wall-to-wall capped drone cells and the rest of the frames were stores.
I saw the queen and there were no queen cups or swarm cells found. I added a medium honey super with no drawn frames.
So what is happening? The workers definitely want the queen to quit laying but why? Are they preparing for the upcoming dearth or do they want to start swarm prep? Should I do anything else to this hive?
Thanks in advance!
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