Ok here's the situation - all hives have two deeps; of which the top deep is nearly completely full of capped honey frames. I know I need to remove some of these to free up space, however I'm not sure how much to take / leave. For instance, the first hive I was in had 8 full frames of honey left over from the winter and the other two are over half full. The bottom box is starting to be filled with eggs / brood.
So, since I am getting dangerously close to being full - and I know I need to add capacity, the question is how much to remove. I feel confident that they bees will not need all this honey since they (very surprisingly) took very little over the winter and came out of the winter so strong. And I'd like to increase my capacity by replacing the frames of capped honey with un-drawn ones, as opposed to adding a super at this point. Also, given my ultimate goal is to grow the apiary from within, which will mean making splits as soon as the numbers build up, I think I'll just hang on to a few of these honey frames to add to the splits. I guess I'll just harvest the other honey if I can otherwise I don't really know what to do with it. Perhaps feed in back to the hive in the fall?
Please comment on my strategy and advise as needed. Also please let me know how much honey I should leave behind at this point. Also should I keep the honey frames where they are (top box) or move them down to the bottom box.
David