[bison]

Hi - another question about a hive with brood in the supers… I have a hive that is absolutely booming. It wintered in two deeps and a medium super. Two weeks ago I looked at it and it had a mixture of brood and honey in the top super, brood and stores in the top deep, and not much in the bottom deep. I added a second super on top without a QE to give them more room to store honey as they're going crazy now. Today I looked at it and that super has a ton of brood in it, including a couple frames of drone that they built from foundation less frames.

I presume I could just wait and let them sort it out, but I'm a bit impatient to get things right again. I'm thinking about moving the two supers to the bottom of the hive, with the empty deep above it and the other deep on top. Then add a QE and put another super on top. How's that sound? thanks!

 

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Rotate the brood and especially the queen to the bottom before they swarm.

 

[bison]

thanks - so the two supers to the bottom, then the empty deep, with the other deep on top? Good to add another super above the deeps with a QE on?

 

[AmericasBeekeeper]

might work if you do not have small hive beetles in your area, way too much free space in the Sunshine State, they only get one unused super at a time to defend here

 

[doug reed]

Had the same problem myself earlier this week. The queen must have made it passed the excluder during the last honey removal. I was expecting all this great honey from the valencia bloom and was I surprised to see all that brood.wow! She had been busy. I had two deeps below with three supers above the excluder. Both brood boxes were pretty full of nectar so I reversed everything. Not a pleasant job, made harder by the last box being screwed onto the bottom board. Don't even remember doing that one. Felt like Three Stooges Beekeeping. The girls were not at all happy with me. I'm sure you will have an easier time. Good luck!

 

[wcubed]

You folks can probably get away with separating brood in your milder climate. It wouldn't be a good idea in more temporate areas. In addition, you have enough bees to make the extra band of insulating bees needed to protect the divided cluster.

I wouldn't do it - even at the fringe of the "deep" south.
Walt

 

[Michael Palmer]

thanks - so the two supers to the bottom, then the empty deep, with the other deep on top? Good to add another super above the deeps with a QE on?

Nope. I would place the supers on the bottom, then the deep with brood and honey, and then the empty deep. I would also add a couple honey supers on top. Is one of the supers newly added…as you wintered with only one super. Does it have brood too? If it only has nectar I would leave it on top of the broodnest after you reverse and then add a new super on top.