Tell me if this is the right plan
2
A little background, I am going into my second year as a beek. I got this colony last year and it had been a swarm that had swarmed into two supers with frames no foundation. They are very very productive and seem toi proliferate well. I got 7 gallons of honey from them last year. Here is what the stack looks like today post inspection. The only difference pre inspection is I added the top super that holds a top feeder. So from the top down here is what I got. Feeder>Super with foundation that has been on for 12 days . They have stolen some of the foundation. > super with some open honey that was checkerboard with empty frames and the super below 12 days ago so the next super has checkerboard honey fames. Most of the honey is open and they are eating it and from the other. My last inspection( 12 days ago) I had 9 frames of honey in this one and checkerboard. Now all the honey is uncapped and about 50-60% has been eaten. There is a lot 65% drone bees in this super. I did see 2 swarm cells but I have a excluder over the brood box so the queen cannot lay in the swarm cells. The next super down is one left over from last year when they made wacky comb. I can inspect about 5 of the 9 frames. The rest have cross comb. Interestingly I have capped brood in this one even though it is above the excluded. It is not drone brood.> next down is the excluded and then the deep which is the brood chamber. I looked at two frames and had closed brood all the way to the top of the frame as well as open so I know that I got the queen in the right box when I put the excluder on last week. I forgot to look for swarm cells on the bottom of the brood frames. I did look in the bottom board with a flashlight and did not see any.
Here is my plan:
Go back ASAP and take off the super under the feeder that just has the foundation. Today I put on a feeder and I plan to feed feed feed.
I then am gonna take the cross combed that is above the brood nest and move it to the top of the stack. I want to get all the brood hatched and get rid of the cross comb. Then I am gonna move the two supers that have been checkerboard down on top of the brood deep and move the excluded one super up so that the brood nest will not be the deep and one super. How des this sound for a plan? Any suggestions? Is there a concern for the amount of drone in that one super?
I did not take any pictures this week of the hive open but here it is last week open so you can see I got a lot of bees.
> Ignore the shim. It got taken out last week when this picture was taken.
The only difference pre inspection is I added the top super that holds a top feeder. So from the top down here is what I got. Feeder>Super with foundation that has been on for 12 days . They have stolen some of the foundation. > super with some open honey that was checkerboard with empty frames and the super below 12 days ago so the next super has checkerboard honey fames. Most of the honey is open and they are eating it and from the other. My last inspection( 12 days ago) I had 9 frames of honey in this one and checkerboard. Now all the honey is uncapped and about 50-60% has been eaten. There is a lot 65% drone bees in this super. I did see 2 swarm cells but I have a excluder over the brood box so the queen cannot lay in the swarm cells. The next super down is one left over from last year when they made wacky comb. I can inspect about 5 of the 9 frames. The rest have cross comb. Interestingly I have capped brood in this one even though it is above the excluded. It is not drone brood.> next down is the excluded and then the deep which is the brood chamber. I looked at two frames and had closed brood all the way to the top of the frame as well as open so I know that I got the queen in the right box when I put the excluder on last week. I forgot to look for swarm cells on the bottom of the brood frames. I did look in the bottom board with a flashlight and did not see any.Here is my plan:
Go back ASAP and take off the super under the feeder that just has the foundation. Today I put on a feeder and I plan to feed feed feed.
I then am gonna take the cross combed that is above the brood nest and move it to the top of the stack. I want to get all the brood hatched and get rid of the cross comb. Then I am gonna move the two supers that have been checkerboard down on top of the brood deep and move the excluded one super up so that the brood nest will not be the deep and one super. How des this sound for a plan? Any suggestions? Is there a concern for the amount of drone in that one super?
I did not take any pictures this week of the hive open but here it is last week open so you can see I got a lot of bees.
> Ignore the shim. It got taken out last week when this picture was taken.
