[Throttlebender]

So I've read that when inspecting a hive, you should always replace frames in the brood chamber in the order they were taken out. BUT, I've also read and been told that when 7 or 8 of the 10 frames are drawn to move those empty/undrawn frames toward the center and then to add a new box of frames.

This confuses me a bit.

 

[alpha6]

In a perfect world you want to replace the brood chambers back into their place but the bees will adjust to where you put them. The key is to place the brood in the center of the hive. The way the bees usually set up are brood in the center, frame of pollen and honey outside that, frame of drone brood and then frame of honey. What you want to do is move your undrawn frames into the slots between your brood frame and the pollen/honey frame or move the last drawn frame into the outside slot and move your undrawn frame into the closer slot. The closer to the brood area the faster they will fill it out. In doing splits when we pull all the brood out of the top hive body I place undrawn new frames between empty drawn frames right in the center of the body. They start filling the drawn frames but will quickly drawn out the undrawn frames since they are in the brood area.

Hope that helps.

 

[Throttlebender]

Perfect explaination Alpha. Thank you!

By the way, I made up a batch of your HBH and was wondering how you keep it from clumping. I stirred and stirred and added everything slowlu, but it still clumped.

 

[alpha6]

Maybe too much granules? Mix them in hot water before hand and let dissolve. Then add your eo's and sugar. I only have a clumping problem if I accidentally use too much of the granules. I let it sit awhile and then mix the heck out of it. Seems to do the trick.

 

[Throttlebender]

Maybe too much granules? Mix them in hot water before hand and let dissolve. Then add your eo's and sugar. I only have a clumping problem if I accidentally use too much of the granules. I let it sit awhile and then mix the heck out of it. Seems to do the trick.

Thanks. I did it in that order but I probably need to let it sit longer.