My three hives just made it through a North Country winter and I'm concerned about their configuration. I have (1) brooder and (2) supers for each hive and the queens have been laying in the brooder and the lower super. At the end of last year the brooders were pretty much empty and most of the action was in the supers. I am going to open up one of the hives this week-end and see if the brooder is still empty. I was told if it is I should put the brooder on top of the supers because the bees like to move up not down. I would also like to add an additional brooder to each hive and keep the reproductive stuff happening in the brooders and the honey storage in the supers. What is the best way to do all this without disrupting the hives?
bees should be at or near the top in the early spring.
If you ended last year with 1 brood box and 1 super and the bees ended up in the top box (super) this spring they will develop brood etc in the top box 1st and then move down to the lower box when there is enough bees in the hive to force this.
Bees always, always, work under foot. If there is not enough bees in a hive to occupy all the space they will only develop and use the space under foot, then as the brood hatch increases the population they will expand out to the other frames.
Place a super on the hive after the bees have began a dedicated commitment to the lower brood box. Most beekeepers run 2 brood boxes with deep boxes and 3-4 using medium boxes. Add another when that box is 80% drawn or 80% of the frames are covered with bees. In a 10 frame hive that means 8 frames must be covered in a box before a super is needed.
Exceptions to this is when using drawn combs and a heavy honey flow is underway, then several supers can be added at once.