Backfilling broodnest with pollen

enchplant · June 09, 2011, 09:42:42 AM

In my large hive I have found the bees are back filling the bottom box with pollen and bee bread. Half the frames are like this. In the upper brood box there is capped brood waiting to hatch and there was a supersedure cell. Is this hive going to swarm, or are they just replacing (the two month old) queen?

Supersedure

Course Bee · June 09, 2011, 09:46:56 AM

I have the same thing happening in one of my hives. Thanks for asking the question and the cool video.

caticind · June 09, 2011, 10:41:26 AM

Was there only one queen cell in the whole hive? If so, it's probably a supercedure. Did you see any eggs? Any larvae?

As for the backfilling, give them more room - another hive body, with frames pulled up from the lower boxes and replaced with empties.

Brian D. Bray · June 12, 2011, 06:48:30 PM

That queen might not be laying if the brood nest is completely back filled. If that's the only queen cell it is definitely a supercedure taking place. But it could be a supercedure opted for becasue of the honey bound condition of the hive itself.
I would recommend adding a super and moving some of those frames of honey up into the super and some undrawn frames placed in the center of the honeybound box. The bees will then drawn comb on the undrawn frames and give the queen someplace to lay eggs. Without that action the hive will dwindle in population and become a target of robbing, which can kill the hive completely. Act while you have time to correct the problem.

AND BY ALL MEANS QUIT FEEDING IF YOU ARE STILL DOING SO. OVERFEEDING IS THE MOST GREVIOUS MISTAKE A BEEKEEPER CAN MAKE. And yes I meant to yell!

FRAMEshift · June 12, 2011, 09:32:56 PM

Backfilling the broodnest with nectar is one thing. And yes, if you are feeding, stop. But the bees will not store more pollen than they need, so if it's pollen on five frames and the brood nest is mostly in the other box, then I agree that you should just add another box. This does not actually sound like "backfilling the broodnest" to me.

enchplant · June 13, 2011, 09:37:40 AM

Thanks - this is great advice. I don't want to remove the queen cell in case it is a supersedure cell. The bees may know something I don't ( That would be easy!) and need to replace the queen. No, I am not feeding, and I have 3 supers on, only 2 are filling. So I will move some of the honey from the brood box out and give them some new foundation frames.

caticind · June 13, 2011, 11:49:34 AM

Sounds right. Definitely do not remove the queen cell.

boca · June 13, 2011, 04:17:48 PM

I can see several drones amongst the workers. In my hives I have around the same proportion of drones. I thought I did something wrong, that's why there are so many.

Is it a healthy proportion of drones in June what we see on the video?

AllenF · June 13, 2011, 04:44:57 PM

For June, yes. The hive knows what it's doing. Drones will be run out during the fall or if there is a food shortage.