[Bob D]

I have 3 hives; 2 survived the winter and seem very strong. One didn't so I closed it up and considered making a split with one of the strong hives.....

My problem though, I have a stack of my unused medium and deep supers on my patio. Some of them have nothing in them, but must have undrawn comb and some (about 25%) have drawn comb. I have deep boxes with medium frames in them too. Well, the other day I saw bees flying around but it. There is a rot hole in the bottom of one of the boxes. I ASSUMED they were goind in an robbing any left over honey that didn't come out when I spun then out last year. However, now there seems to be a lot of bees coming and going. AND, they are bringing pollen INTO the stack of boxes.

So, how much of a mess have I created? Can I try to find the queen and take the frame she is on and the brood and insert them into the closed down hive that I have that didn't survive the winter? Or, should I just leave them alone?

If it matters, I'm in New England - Just outside of Boston.

Bob

 

[ericweller]

Leaving it alone will make matters worse in a few weeks. It is better to put the frames in a proper sized box. Wait until dark, close up the box and move the hive to its final location. If the frames you put in the box do not have stores, add a feeder and feed until the hive is back to full strength.

 

[Bob D]

Thank you. Another question, I use deeps for brood and mediums for honey. If the new hive in my stack of boxes has brood in a medium or two, Should I move the mediums as they are and made them my brood boxes?

 

[ericweller]

If all they have drawn out is medium frames, I would put the medium frames in a medium box and let them fill up the box. Once filled, put a deep box under the medium and let them fill it out. Since I use 2 deep brood chambers, I would add the second deep on top of the first deep and add a queen excluder under the medium. Inspect 5 days after adding the excluder to make certain the queen is not in the medium box. Move her down if she is.
This will take a couple of months but you could probably speed things up by feeding but make sure you don't overfeed and make them swarm.