[flatfootflukey]

this is my first year with bees and i think i am in about the same situation as the "honey bound" post. my deep is full of brood, pollen and honey however they never drew out 2 and 1/2 of the frames.
my super which i am using as a second brood chamber has lots of capped honey no brood and has 4 frames not drew out.
i added another super to keep them from running out of room. looked in on them today and noticed they were bearding on the hive just like they usually do before dark but it was 11:00am and a nice day. opened the hive and its full of ladies who were not real happy to see me and i noticed that they had not drew out any frames in the new super or any more frames in the others they were just like the last time i was there when i added the super about 2and 1/2 weeks ago. they were all over the foundation in all 3 parts of the hive but no wax production.
should i be feeding them to help out on wax production?
also when i put on the last super i put it between the lower deep and the super that was already being packed with honey { no queen excluder } was this the right placement or should it have been on top?
thanks in advance for any advice
flatfootflukey

 

[NY_BLUES]

try moving some of the undrawn frames in the bottom box up to the brood nest, but not into it. putting their honey and pollen stores on the other side of an undrawn frame might help in getting them to draw out more comb. The same can go for the super on top, move some undrawn frames to the center and put capped on the outside.

 

[flatfootflukey]

thanks for the info NY BLUES
i will give that a try.
would it be best to do it tomorrow or just wait till my next inspection?

 

[nathan]

Hey flatfootflukey, sounds like you're doing ok. Lots of comb honey producers super just like you did. You're in the valley between the Ozarks and the Quachitas, right? Up here in the 'Zarks, our honey flow has slowed down, not much left but a little Queen Anne's Lace and some sumac. You might have some agricultural crops coming up, a fellow beek in eastern Arkansas says the soybeans are fixing to bloom. I wouldn't recommend feeding, sounds like they have enough honey to get them through the next dry spell. The bees won't want to draw comb if there's not enough nectar available, it takes a lot of nectar to make comb. With the heat and humidity, my bees, except for one hive that has a lot of afternoon shade, have been hanging outside a lot. Their breath releases a lot of moisture that they don't need in the hive when the humidity is 80%+. I wouldn't worry too much, they'll bee fine.

 

[nathan]

Oh, and shuffling frames like NY Blues says works, too, if there's enough flow, but if there's not nectar, they won't draw.

 

[flatfootflukey]

hey nathan good to see another arkie on here
im just about where you said. my place is bordered on 2 sides by the ozark st. frances national forest right at the foot of mt. magazine.
i was afraid they were running out of space with no drawn frames left. being new i don't have anything but foundation and when they did not seem to be working it i freaked out.
im not sure what if anything is flowing right now here so i had better wait to move frames. they seem to like the crape myrtles but i think all they are gathering is pollen from them but the persimmons should not be too far away though
thanks for the reply all info is greatly appreciated

 

[schmism]

When i was starting my packages last spring on new undrawn frames i had to shuffle them around to get them to draw the last few on the outside.

 

[Growing Boy]

I have the same situation here. The flow is over but I threw a medium on to give them a bit of space seeing as though they had drawn out everything below.Checked yesterday and found a whole lot of bees wandering around the frames and foundation just hanging out. I thought about feeding them but will wait as we have a bit of flow in the fall with asters and goldenrod. If they need a bit of bulking up I'll feed then. Of course winter is an ify thing here.
Could be bad (a week of below freezing weather) or absolutely no winter at all.
Right now they're bringing in immense amounts of pollen from the Crape Myrtle and Mimosa and pushing out brood so they seem to be OK.