I just recently split off my first hive by adding a deep brood box to it about 5 weeks ago and split it last Wednesday. I introduced a new queen last Thursday and she was accepted. On Sunday I checked and couldn't find eggs. Someone suggested feeding to jump start. This morning I gave them a quart of 1:1 and 10 hours later it was dry (top feeding). I was feeding the brood box only. It then dawned on me, "Where are they putting all that sugar? So I took a look and found some of the middle frames with liquid all in between the capped brood. But the good thing is I have found eggs, so I know she's laying. Problem is they are filling up her cells with the sugar water. I added a super and put on another bottle figuring they will still be thinking fat and happy times but will start putting the stuff there instead. If given the new super will they put it all there? The frames are already drawn out from being extracted.
So what should I do? Should I yank the feed? I checked my other hive which I recently placed a new super on, and last week it was mostly drawn out but no nectar whatsoever. I just looked at it and there is now nectar in the middle of at least 5 or 6 frames. So there is flow still going on and we are a few weeks away from a big flow.
Thanks all!
Sounds like they have it covered and I would stop feeding. I always like to feed right after a split or when I make up nucs. The bees should start moving the surplus up to the super and use up what they stored in the brood area.
View it as a jump start. If there is no dearth, continued feeding will most likely not be necessary to keep the queen laying. As long as she's started, you should be golden. Just keep your eyes open and don't let a dearth sneak up on you.
So they will clean out the sugar water they filled in the brood frames now that I have a super on? I just got concerned when I saw so much sugar water placed in the middle frames, which were pretty much cleaned out from recently exiting brood and ready for mama. The two end frames are all drawn out with honey on the inside but just empty comb on the outside facing sides. I wonder why they didn't put it in there first?
Not sure why they did it that way except they thought there was a flow on and just started filling from the top down. I would turn the outside frames that have honey on them to have the honey facing out towards the box. This way you have open comb for her to lay in.
Thanks pdmattox. I am never quite sure how to manipulate the frames since I frequently hear to respect their order.
There is nothing wrong with changing the order of frames IF you have a reason.