Backfilling???

[Aroc]

We have a couple of hives that are starting to back fill the brood chamber with nectar.  It?s a bit frustrating since there is room still on the sides....plenty of open cells.  They aren?t in the mood to move up either.

Two deeps and a single super right now.

Any thoughts.  Is a 3rd deep the answer assuming I have some drawn comb to put in?

[beepro]

For 2 deeps brood nest you need at least 3 drawn honey supers on when there is
a significant flow going on.   When they starting to back fill the brood nest then they
will make the QCs.  Eventually they will move up but with one honey super on there isn't too
much room for them.   I say put on another drawn comb honey super if you have any.

[Acebird]

We have a couple of hives that are starting to back fill the brood chamber with nectar.

The colony needs honey to make bee bread to raise brood.  Are you sure they are backfilling?  Backfilling would be a shutdown of brood.  Flows could have tapered off which would explain why they are not storing honey.  If they are backfilling to swarm they will make queen cells.

[Aroc]

Unfortunately I don?t have any drawn super frames as yet.  Going from three to 10 hives does cause a bit of a problem as your frames are all undrawn.

[Oldbeavo]

Or are you queenless in that hive?
If you have a queen she is maybe shutting down due to lack of nectar flow.
If you have a nectar flow and a queen and there are nearly full frames in brood box shift them up and give undrawn to brood box.
Very hard to comment as this is a situation where you need to be on the spot and assess all the factors to draw a conclusion.
Sometimes if confusion reigns then walk away and have another look in 7-10 days for more signs, quite often it becomes clear to what is happening.

[Aroc]

I do believe I have a queen. Yesterday I did note eggs. I?m just wondering if maybe she?s a slow layer. She has been in there for about a month.  New this year.

I did see a queen cell on one of the outside frames a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was really an odd place  since there was no brood around it at all. I took it out at that time.

[beepro]

You might want to check on the queen to see if she is walking right, especially the 2 hind legs.  Any sign of
leg deformity the bees can detect it and might trigger a supersedure situation.   It also explain the slowness in
laying as well.   This will cause a back filling situation.

A strong queen the bees will make room for the eggs even when I confined her to the bottom deep box.