[michos]

I posted a month or so ago about one of my hives being packed with honey on the upper deep with absolutely no brood up there. Almost 100% brood in the lower and almost 100% honey in the upper. It was suggested that I need to add honey supers ASAP or they might swarm. I did this and it seems as though things have settled down and the bees are slowly drawing out the honey super. I assumed that the reason that the queen wasn't laying brood up top was because they needed more space for honey. However:

I have another hive that I Just added a second deep to about a month ago. I pulled one brood frame up to the top to draw them up. There were a few drawn out frames that I threw in as well but otherwise they were starting with an empty deep. Today, on inspection, I see that they have it about 60% full of honey and have not added any brood at all - just some brood on the one frame that I pulled from the bottom. Now im confused as I assumed that if they had plenty of room for both brood and honey up top, they would continue to expand the brood frames. Is this not the case? Why are only expanding with honey and not brood?

 

[Wolfer]

Depending on the time of year this would be normal for me. In the spring I'll have brood in both boxes. As the season progresses the brood nest will move down and the top deep will become honey only.

Once the bees decide the work force is big enough they only raise enough to hold it there.

Around here my main flow is usually in the spring with some maintenance flows throughout the summer. I can only get comb drawn in the spring.
If they get the top deep filled but are not drawing on the supers very well I'll extract a few frames from the top deep. Say four maybe six. I'll put the wet frames right back on in the middle. Often those will be filled back up in a week or so. Then I take any other frames that are capped. I repeat until they start slowing down at which time I stop taking any. They usually manage to fill them up by fall which I leave for them.

If I crush and strain they won't rebuild the comb. Nor will they draw a super. If I just leave them alone nothing seems to happen. This method while a little time consuming allows me to get an extra 60 to 80 lbs of honey that I wouldent get otherwise.

I go to great lengths to get all my comb drawn in the month of May. As a general rule whatever I get is all ill get.

 

[mathesonequip]

michos and wolfer what is your secret? you seem to have normal well trained bees.