@matt I’ll have more pictures this weekend all 40 of my hives look like that with several frames in each. Hopefully I can get to them before they swarm luckily it’s been 50s and rainy all week. They had such a good fall on the golden rod and broom weed they had a lot to build from.
Wow that's more hives than I thought. Even with the rain they will still be growing in population as the capped brood emerges. Sounds like you will have a busy weekend ahead. Have fun!
With frames of partial foundation consider the following:
@dudelt
I have found that some hives will draw out full sheets foundation in the initial stage, but I think it depends on the amount of nectar coming in. Also, if you move up a couple of honey frames and decap that honey, they start emptying out those frames and it simulates a flow.
But as you said, other hives may only draw out a small patch of foundation and then completely ignore it, treating it like an obstacle.
I believe that partial foundation causes the night time cluster to experience the empty space around the outside of the Broodnest. They have to cling onto each other and store nectar/honey in their stomach. So this is like they are in a swarm cluster and it helps to stimulate wax production and build comb. But it takes a few days for this to happen and they may chew wax from other places in the hive to build comb. So the hole needs to be big enough to get past that and for wax making to start happening.
@JasonA
So it may be possible to still stimulate wax production but have less drone comb, for example by cutting smaller triangles off the bottom corners of a full sheet of foundation. As long as the night time cluster experiences the empty space. I prefer to go for the corners so that the majority of the middle area of the frame is worker comb. Maybe something to experiment with.
@Saltybee
I don't have a problem with inserting a frame inside the Broodnest later on in the season when temperatures are warmer and more stable. But here in early spring the temperatures can be very variable and have sudden temperature drops. So I don't want to force the bees to have to heat a larger area than they are used to. The result can be chilled brood.