Should I add a super already?

[dgc1961]

Last thursday I caught a swarm and placed them into a 10 frame deep, already drawn comb hive..  I took a quick peek inside today just to see how many bee's are in the hive.  All of the frames were full of bees.  I know that you are suppose to wait till they have 7 or 8 of the frames filled with honey/pollen before you add the next super.

But I am wondering if I should go ahead and add the extra super on now to give them more room.  I would hate for them to already start swarm preps with a congested hive.  I am thinking that they may be way to congested, because the number of bee's that I seen in there today does not account for the bee's that are in the field.  So in the evening time it will be a lot more crowded than it is.

This swarm should have good genes, the ownder of the house from where they came says that the colony has been there for about 5 years.

[D Coates]

Is the super drawn or undrawn?  If a swarm is in drawn comb they'll get to work rearing brood very quickly if it's a mated queen, but you'll not get the full advantage of their comb building urge.  They aren't really interested in swarming again right after they did it a week or so ago.  You won't see the population explosion begin for another 3 weeks anyway.

I try to use swarms to their full comb building abilities as they start off.  I make sure to feed them 1:1 as long as they'll take it and keep drawing comb.

[dgc1961]

8 of the 10 frames are drawn comb.

[buzzbee]

It may not hurt to add another box,but keep in mind the bee population will lessen every day until new brood begins to hatch.

[JP]

Based on what you described I would add a super now.


...JP