Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: gramps8 on February 03, 2020, 04:07:42 pm
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Checking my bees today. Temp in mid 70's. A couple of hives have uncapped honey in the hive body and are laying up brood in the honey super. Any suggestions on best way to fix this?
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Rotate them. Then rotate again when they lay up the brood box. If they?re both the same size you can move frames between them. You need to be pretty confident in hive strength and upcoming flows to do this.
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Appreciate the reply Barhopper. After thinking about it while checking other hives today, I think on the next warm day--60's to 70's, I will shake the bees off in the super back to the hive body, put on a queen excluder and set the super back in place. I know the nurse bees will go back to the brood. There are still 3 or 4 empty frames in the brood box so the queen will have plenty of space to lay in.
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Appreciate the reply Barhopper. After thinking about it while checking other hives today, I think on the next warm day--60's to 70's, I will shake the bees off in the super back to the hive body, put on a queen excluder and set the super back in place. I know the nurse bees will go back to the brood. There are still 3 or 4 empty frames in the brood box so the queen will have plenty of space to lay in.
I need to order queen excluders also gramps8. Remember, if the bees are not comfortable with the space provided and the queens laying space is crowded, they will raise queen cells and they will swarm. They may do it anyway under certain circumstances. lol . Good luck in Alabama...
Blessings,
Phillip
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Thanks for all replys
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Thanks for all replys
Your welcome gramps8 I hope we helped you. We are glad to have you here. Can I ask, how many hives do you have?
Blessings,
Phillip
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Thanks for all replys
Where are you in Alabama?
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Perfectly natural. My advice is do nothing at this time.
In late summer and fall, the Bees set themselves up in the bottom with resources above. Over winter they follow the resources and the heat conservation, gradually moving up. Thus at late winter, early spring, they will begin their season working from the top down. In this way, at this time, it is normal to find brood above and empty frames below, perhaps even some resources below. As they need it, they will go down to get the resources and bring it up for the brood thus emptying the frames below.
So ... leave the Bees be, for now. You will find and observe that upper brood will be emerged in a month and queen working below. The bees having timed clearing out the upper for when your spring nectar flows arrive. They will fill up there with nectar/honey and move down at that time.
The bees know what they are doing. Your role is to make it easiest for them to do it. At your inspections: clean away debris and dead from bottom board, verify healthy brood and bees, verify queen healthy her pattern and her workspace, then get out. Leave everything where it is. Wrong time of year for manipulations. If you do so now, you will likely set them back significantly. Avoid making work for the bees until they have a strong population and a heavy flow coming in.
IMHO.
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Thank you, Ian.
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X2 , leave alone. The bee's know better than us.
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I've opened boxes in spring and the bottom brood chamber will be totally empty. And queen in 2nd brood box laying like crazy and heading down.