I read an article on beesource.com by Walt Wright about nectar management. His point is that over crowding (meaning too many bees in the hive) is NOT the cause of swarming. He wants a LOT of bees = more honey. He says that people often mess up on nectar management, and the broodnest becomes backfilled, which leads to idle bees, which leads to swarming. In other words, the time to stop the swarming is not when we have a lot of bees, but earlier, by opening the brood nest with empty frames, giving the nurse bees something to do, and more space for the queen.
In my long hives, there seems to be a LOT of frames with uncapped nectar. (I think they ought to be more considerate, and cap each cell before they start another.)
1. Do I shift all these partial filled, uncapped frames further down the long hive?
2. Will the bees cap it eventually, or lose tract of it?
3. If there are small patches of open brood (say 3 inches) on a frame mostly filled with nectar, do I leave it in the brood area, or will it contribute to the backfill problem and lead to swarming?
4. Are these small patches of open brood (on mostly nectar filled frames) a usual horizontal hive process, or is it the queen laying any place she can in a backfilled brood nest?
5. What about capped brood? Is capped brood considered brood nest? Meaning does it have to kept warm also, or can I shift that nectar filled /partially capped brood further down the hive?
These are questions which seem to me to be more prevelant in long live situations. Horizontal hives have their benefits... but also difficulties.