If you are running deeps for supers, moving honey frames up will help and adding foundation between capped brood frames. Never enough drawn comb! I am fighting the same fight on a much smaller basis. Sounds like you are rolling Ben! Living the dream. You can sleep this winter.
How to deal with backfilling properly and Fast
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Yeah I wish I had 2-300 frames of drawn comb for deeps, it would help out a lot. That is my reason for putting 1 or 2 deeps on for honey this year. We don't have a huge amount of hives, right now probably 140+ but I will be making another 50+ nucs for wintering this coming week with mated queens from a local breeder. Next year I hope to be full time at beekeeping 
Thanks
Ben
Thanks
Ben
Drawn comb, there never seems to be enough of it, where I live the bees will draw comb in May when the nectar is coming in fast and then it's over for the year, if I want it drawn any other time I need to feed syrup however if you feed too fast the hive will swarm, feeding can be a pain in the butt. Running nucs in the spring is a good way to get comb drawn out.
Back filling is just the natural thing for these frugal little creatures, after the summer solstice they will not draw an ounce of comb if it isn't absolutely needed.
What I am experimenting with now is running a three deep brood box configuration, the hives are going into this winter with as much honey stores in the two upper deeps as is possible, then I will checker these upper deeps in early spring which should encourage expansion and limit swarming. When the spring flow arrives I should have more bees per hive to gather nectar and draw comb in the supers.
I wish you the best Ben, sounds like you are doing well....
Back filling is just the natural thing for these frugal little creatures, after the summer solstice they will not draw an ounce of comb if it isn't absolutely needed.
What I am experimenting with now is running a three deep brood box configuration, the hives are going into this winter with as much honey stores in the two upper deeps as is possible, then I will checker these upper deeps in early spring which should encourage expansion and limit swarming. When the spring flow arrives I should have more bees per hive to gather nectar and draw comb in the supers.
I wish you the best Ben, sounds like you are doing well....
My problem is that I haven't enough equipment for that many more hives, I am buying as many boxes as I can afford for honey supers (200) with preassembled frames and I have around 200 mediums of my own I am finishing up this week too, I also have around 50 deeps ready for paint and 15 double nuc boxes I made a few months ago that are getting painted today.
I can only do so much with the amount of time I have after my other full time job
I can only do so much with the amount of time I have after my other full time job
Slow down the "back filling?" Why would you want that? Guess you could put nets over them! Slowing them down is not the real issue.My problem is that I haven't enough equipment for that many more hives
I can only do so much with the amount of time I have after my other full time job
Ever hear the phrase....... You my son have bit off more than you can chew? Rejoice! You now have personal experience with the time and equipment management issues that every growing side-liner with visions of the big time happens to encounter on the road to a full time headache!
Better to get a small burn today when handling the fire stick than tomorrow when it is a larger one that's flaring out of control. The ticket price to enter the bee club AKA " Shouldn't have done that" is often pretty steep.
Keep this moment in your mind when you start to think of how many to start with next spring otherwise this experience will put you in the seat of one who fails to learn from getting a small burn.
Having to many boxes on hand is a blessing and a curse. IMO having way to many is better than being way to short when it comes to suppers. Keep that in mind when winter plans are being made for spring numbers.
Been there. Done that.....
On the bee side of things: Would it help to split super them if you did have adequate boxes?
I am building my numbers up because I am going full time beekeeping next year and I want more hives for pollination ( which I see no end to how many you can rent out ) and also to keep some at home for honey and nuc sales.
Pollination of blueberries this year was our first big rental and they came back full of honey, since it was busy season @ the shop with mowers etc... I couldn't get the time off to manage them properly directly after bringing them home. That won't happen again !!!
I just didn't imagine they were going to do as well as they did so far, I was just out to the hives 30 minutes ago doing some opening of the brood nests some of the hives already have 1 full box of honey and they were undrawn deeps and or medium supers.
I made 3 nucs so far from the 12 hives I checked just before lunch and I will probably make some more in a few minutes.
I don't know how to properly manage hives in singles yet, but I can see how it would be easier (specially with an ezyloader )
Pollination of blueberries this year was our first big rental and they came back full of honey, since it was busy season @ the shop with mowers etc... I couldn't get the time off to manage them properly directly after bringing them home. That won't happen again !!!
I just didn't imagine they were going to do as well as they did so far, I was just out to the hives 30 minutes ago doing some opening of the brood nests some of the hives already have 1 full box of honey and they were undrawn deeps and or medium supers.
I made 3 nucs so far from the 12 hives I checked just before lunch and I will probably make some more in a few minutes.
I don't know how to properly manage hives in singles yet, but I can see how it would be easier (specially with an ezyloader
)
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