My two strong hives have about 6 or 7 frames about completely drawn. Lots of brood will be emerging in the next week; several frames worth in the two hives I'm referring to. I will be out of town until the 27th. I know it's too soon to put a second brood chamber in top of the existing ones.
Brood is starting to emerge as of today as a matter of fact. How much time do you think I'll have before they have all 10 drawn out and start looking for more foundation to draw? Do I have ten days?
Mklangelo,
General Rule of Thumb: 7 frames drawn, add another chamber.
I would add another chamber right now. Its quite often that the bees really never draw the outer comb on the chamber. If the population is going to explode pretty soon, add one today. Don't get them too populated so they make up their mind to swarm, and then finally you add another box in 10 days. I highly recommend adding it today.
Do not wait till all 10 of them are full. I gaurantee you they will swarm.
It is not too soon to add one today if 7 are full.
Jake
If you're afraid they will run out of room before you return, you can place the deep beneath the brood and if they really need it, they'll use it. W/o risking chilled brood and too much room. or use a medium instead. Its impossible to tell how long they will take to draw out a deep. One hive of mine did it ten days, another took all summer. Remember, brood is hatching all the time and opening up cells for the queen to lay, and workers die every minute too
i'd add. i have my 2nds on and put them on before the bottom was fully draw out. i just put mine on top. it was not a problem and we have had nites still into the 30s. top or bottom...add.
I just returned from overseas and had a similar problem before I left. I was told by the members here to add supers and I did that and all turned out fine.
Good Luck
Annette
I added them. Better early than late, since those were my two choices... One has 6 drawn and the other very close to seven. What's the worst that could happen? They could draw comb in chimney fashion?
Thanks for the replies!
Unfortunately a lot of things can happen if you add supers/more brood boxes too soon. If you add more boxes than the hive can handle, moths and other pests tend to invade and overwhelm the hive. Also, if you have a full drawn super with no honey, and the bees can maintain and cool/warm the honey, it tends to melt and deform with the summer sun. However, another good rule of thumb is for every 2 brood chambers you can add up to 2-3 supers at one time during the summer.
Jake
i would put newspaper over the full chamber, like..4-5layers and then add the empty super. that way, they'd move up when feeling tightened. BUT, this is strictly a hypothetical thing, i don't think no one has ever tried it, i know i haven't. it's just an-.-idea :)