So I've been reading about honey-bound and pollen-bound b/c I had a hive swarm (because didnt get honey supers on fast enough and they filled the brood boxes with honey and pollen) now they are filling every open comb with honey or pollen as soon as brood hatches. I'm wondering if there's a way to neatly remove the pollen without destroying the comb?
They have multiple frames of pollen nearly full and other scattered stores of pollen in each of my hives, it just seems like a whole lot more than they need, I mean there really is maybe 10-20% open comb left for brood in the 2 deep brood chambers.
My understanding is that pollen is feed to the brood/larva...is this correct or what do they do with it and what sounds like a normal amount for a hive to store up?
how much space should be open in the brood chambers for brood?
What I have done so far is I've extracted some of the honey from the deeps and also put in some new empty deep frames and another deep super on one hive. I also extracted and replaced the entire honey supers and added second honey supers. What else can I do to reopen the brood chamber and keep it open?
sorry this is scattered I'm just trying to get a handle on how this all works and I'm out in the middle of nowhere without any other beekeepers nearby, so the help from you all is amazing. thanks
Jay
what you have done is fine. we all should be so lucky. be aware that the queen will begin backing off laying as days shorten. it is normal for the bees to begin backfilling the brood chamber with honey as we get closer to fall. if you find that your new super is not being used, you may want to remove it by mid to end august. by September, you will want to have them pretty compacted down for winter. it doesn't sound like you'll have to feed, so you have a little time to see what they will do. by the end of September or by 1st frost, you'll want to have them arranged for winter. if you need to remove some of the frames of honey to make room for bees and left over brood, you can freeze those frames and feed them back as you need to.
i don't know how quickly your weather turns. i get first frost mid to late September. i do a last check in October and then i'm out of there until we get a warm day in February or so.
The bees are packing away the pollen because they are slowing down the egg laying this time of year so the store the pollen to help with brood rearing in times of pollen dearth and to give them a head start in the spring. My hives here are all having 2 to 3 frames of solid pollen per box, I'm running 8 frame deeps. I've noticed this in years past as well, they have the excess stored in july, but by end of september it'll be all gone as they start using it for fall brood for over winter.
thanks Kathy and Ray, its good to know I'm on hte right track, all along I know the bees know what they're doing but I feel I have to meddle ;) I guess I'll continue to watch and learn and read alot.