hive question

[pdmattox]

I belive hive #5 is honey bound.  I spotted queen but not any brood or eggs.  All 8 frames are 100% full of honey and pollen stores with no where for her to lay.  I belive my plan of action will be to throw away the queen excluder and add another deep on top move the full frames to the top deep and empty frames back in the bottom, return the 2 med supers on top of the 2 deeps.

Is this the correct plan of action?

[Brian D. Bray]

Yes, you don't have to throw the excluder away as there are a few isolated uses for it.

How many times must we repeat--A queen excluder is a honey excluder.  The bees will often fill the hive full of honey until its honey bound or swarm or both rather than cross the barrier the excluder represents.  You now have first hand experience with this phenomonon.

[Michael Bush]

An excluder makes a great bottom to an uncapping bin.  :)  It's also handy for certain mainulations like finding a very hard to fnid queen.

I have a few around here and I use one now and then.