When pulling honey last week, some of my bottom brood boxes had some pollen stores and a good deal of empty brood comb. Would it be ok to rearrange the the frames? Say take all brood and move to bottom while placing empty comb above them? Is that too much disturbance of the nest? I?d like to add apivar strips in the process...
Strips maybe, the rest I wouldn't mess with.
What you would be doing essentially is reversing the boxes. That is a practice commonly used in the springtime to encourage expanding the nest upward. This time of year, depending on your local flow, they may be reducing the brood nest. Trying to force them to work back up would be futile.
Take what honey you can, treat them and let them prepare for winter. Feed if necessary.
Thanks for replies. Will not jack with them.