Thinking I may have missed something here. When one hive seemed to be honey bound, I added medium supers to the bottoms of two hives--what's good for one is good for the other--but neither hive has really done much with it. The honey bound hive (one large and one medium box) has drawn out some comb on the bottom medium super, but no larvae or honey (while the top box has been full for 3-4 weeks).
The second hive is three mediums--an empty bottom box, middle box full of larvae, top box filled with honey and no larvae. The top two boxes were almost full the last time I looked (3 weeks ago). I'm thinking about moving the empty super to the middle.
What am I missing?
They will always store honey from the top down. They have enough empty space above the empty to store what is coming in and not eaten immediately, if there is any excess coming in. They will move down only when the uppers are TOTALLY full.
Quote from: winginit on June 10, 2012, 09:33:44 PM
I added medium supers to the bottoms of two hives--
What am I missing?
You are missing one way....
It seem that you have good flow, and bees need room for honey, wet nectar, pollen and brood.
One way is that
- collect all honey and nectar frame up and
- and move brood frames down.
- Then add empty combs or foundations to boath boxes.
Often I do so that I add one super up and another down at ame time.
If you have pollen frames, the order is - brood- pollen - empty- wall
Don't brake brood area with empty frames in a small hive. 4-box hive stands braking.
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I would just add the honey supers to the top of the hives. Good luck with your bees.
Joe
Quote from: Joe D on June 11, 2012, 10:29:11 AM
I would just add the honey supers to the top of the hives. Good luck with your bees.
Joe
And put an already drawn frame in it from the other box.
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90% out of beekeepers cannot do nothing else that cast a box over the hive. That needs not much skills.