Should I move the honey from the center of the brood box?

[TwoHoneys]

A number of my newly installed hives are packing in a lot of honey...very little brood, but tons of honey. Should I move the honey frames from the center of the box to the sides, or should I leave it all alone? The hives I'm referring to are still only a single medium box high. I've thought of adding a second medium and moving the honey up there.

-Liz

[Kathyp]

the honey is over the top of the brood?  when you add your second box, put it under the 1st.  if the honey is over the brood, the queen  may not cross it to lay.  rather than moving frames, just move the box. 

if the entire frame is honey then you may want to move it to the side a bit and make sure there are empty frames in the middle for the queen.  that way she'll have the middle of both boxes when you add.

[TwoHoneys]

the honey is over the top of the brood?  when you add your second box, put it under the 1st.  if the honey is over the brood, the queen  may not cross it to lay.  rather than moving frames, just move the box. 

kathyp, there isn't yet a second box, so the honey isn't over anything. The first (and only) box is filling with honey and not with brood. It's as if the bees have been concentrating all their energies on storing honey.

if the entire frame is honey then you may want to move it to the side a bit and make sure there are empty frames in the middle for the queen.  that way she'll have the middle of both boxes when you add.

This is what I did. But I'm a bit worried because there's no brood anywhere. I think I'm gonna have to give this hive a frame of brood from another colony.

[Kathyp]

you know you have a queen?

when i said honey over brood, i meant a band of honey over the brood. 

sounds like you need to 1. add a new box, and 2. check that queen.  she may not be laying if there is not enough room, but she may also be a dud.  give her room and some drawn comb.  if she doesn't fill it up right quick i'd consider replacing her.  i'd still add the second box under.

[TwoHoneys]

Thanks for your quick responses, kathyp.

I don't know that I have a queen.

I added a second box (on top) today, but I'll go back and put it beneath the first box now.

I moved the honey frames to the sides of the first box and inserted empty frames in the center. There's already some drawn comb in the box where she could lay.

I'll add a frame of eggs and larva from another hive in the event they need a queen.

[hankdog1]

Make sure you have eggs on the frame your adding that way you give your bees the time and the choice of which they would want to raise in the event you have no queen.  If you do have a queen and she isn't laying you'll definately need to make sure and pinch her first.  I seriously doubt you haveing a queen though if your seeing no brood at all.  Even if she's used up she will normally lay drong eggs still.

[TwoHoneys]

I've been keeping an extra queen in a nuc, but the nuc hive isn't thriving either...I think I should introduce my nuc queen to the hive I think is queenless.

However, I've never combined hives before. Do you think I should try a newspaper combine rather than introducing frames of eggs and larva?

-Liz

[T Beek]

I'd wait until 'you know for sure' there is a queen problem.  Sometimes doing nothing is better than doing something.  You did the right thing by making room (moving honey frames to sides) now you may see eggs on next inspection.  I agree that a second box added 'below' would be proper and if you can shift some frames around in each box, that would be best (don't just place an empty box).  Workers will push queen downstairs and you may see some eggs pretty quick.  Good luck.

thomas

[TwoHoneys]

Thanks, thomas. I'll keep my wits about me and wait.