Excess honey in brood box

yoderski · July 23, 2006, 11:28:07 PM

My one hive has been underperforming all year. The first drone frame was filled with primarily honey, with only a couple of capped drones. This month, when I replaced it, it was all honey! And when I checked the hive box, it has most of the frames filled with honey as well. There are a couple of frames that are primarily brood frame. No wonder they are not putting much honey up in the super. I do not have on a queen excluder, and have 2 medium supers on top of the deep hive box. So what do I need to do, replace the honey bound frames with frames without drawn foundation, (I don't have any drawn already) or leave well enough alone, and be thankful they are putting honey somewhere??

latebee · July 23, 2006, 11:45:06 PM

How many bees do you have in the hive framewise? With only a couple of frames of brood- requeening could solve this before winter. How many brood chambers do you have,and how many supers?

Finsky · July 24, 2006, 02:12:52 AM

Like latebee says, you queen is not in normal condition.

TwT · July 24, 2006, 02:14:13 AM

I would re queen also......

Brian D. Bray · July 24, 2006, 03:07:05 AM

An marginally acceptable queen should have 5-6 frames of brood per brood box. If you are running 2 deeps that means a total of 10-12 frames of brood total. A good queen will run 7-8 frames per brood box and an excellent queen will have the equivalent of 9 or 10 brood frames per box or 18-20 with 2 deeps.

Anytime your queen is not meeting the definition of a good queen it is time to consider replacement. If honey production is your goal then the more bees as quickly as possible is the necessity. Nursing a marginal queen is usually an exercise in futility and a hive with a marginal queen will be lucky to meet its own need let alone have any for you.

yoderski · July 24, 2006, 10:03:27 AM

I have 1 deep brood frame, with 2 honey supers, but no excluder. So I think too that the queen is underperforming. There seem to be a lot bees, all the frames are covered with bees. I believe that this hive swarmed earlier in the year, and things have fallen off production wise since then...So requeening is probably the right thing to do...I will try to do that as soon as possible..Thanks for everyones help....

Finsky · July 24, 2006, 10:16:17 AM

One basic "difficulty" seems to be that you have too good pastures. Bees fill quickly hive with honey. It is difficult to know if queen is good or bad if it has not enough room to lay.

Why it swarmed? Perhaps naturally or small hive was full of honey.

Try to get a big hive which have capacity to handle brood and nectar. It means at least 2 deeps for brood and at least 6 mediums for honey. I prefer 3 deeps and 4-5 mediums.

If you have only one hive it is difficult. It something happens to it happens 100% to your yard.