I'm just curious...
How quickly would you expect to see a hive draw out the frames on a first honey super?
I hived the package on April 5th, and put my second box on in late April.
They've drawn out 10 frames in both boxes , and their numbers seem strong, so I added a shallow super this past Monday (above a queen excluder).
I checked it today, and found a few bees on each frame in the super, but not more than 5-10 on each and absolutely nothing drawn or even started.
Is this common?
No flow on, or other possibilities?
Thanks.
They will draw the comb when they need it. No flow = no need. When you have a strong hive and a flow, they can draw it out and fill it in just a few days.
Your new package sounds like it is doing very well.
Steve
do you have a top entrance above the queen excluder. Sometimes bees are slow about moving up. You might try removing the excluder for a few days letting them get up into the super and start drawing comb then replace excluder. Be sure the queen is down in brood box when you do
So today I went out & took a look today.
They've got both sides of 8 ( out of 10) frames drawn out in the honey super. That's good.
I didn't see much honey stored in it yet, but a little pollen.
Down below in the upper brood super I was dismayed to find a lt of honey/nectar stores in the brood area along with capped brood. There's capped honey up top, a ribbon of pollen and then about half/half capped brood and open stores.
I'm assuming they got honey bound in the middle of a big flow ( since the pulled the comb in the honey super so fast)waiting for the honey super to get drawn out, and may not store much up there until it's all (or mostly) drawn out, correct?
When they start storing in the honey super I'm assuming they'll sort out the stores in the brood area problem, correct?
There are lots of bees around and no major signs of queen cells.
Thanks.