Pollen/honey bound?

[Potlicker1]

After an inspection today, one of my colonies appears to be filled with pollen and honey. It doesn't seem like the queen has anyplace to lay and is wandering aimlessly. Should I pull some of the frames out and replace them or am I worrying about nothing? Need some advice.

[Robo]

You definitely want to open it up for her to have room to lay.   If they are bound,  they may swarm or perhaps supersede the queen.  Do a search on checkerboard in the forum.

[Potlicker1]

I did go back in and remove one frame that was loaded up with honey and pollen and replaced it with a frame of drawn out comb. I'm going to freeze it and use it for feed next spring.  I did find the queen but unfortunatly I didn't find any brood or larvea. She looked fat, unlike a queen ready to leave the colony. I'm just not sure why she shut down. There's plenty of room for her. Didn't see any queen cells either. I'm pretty confused by her behavior. 
Anyone have a suggestion?

[Moonshae]

If you only have one deep, or fewer than three medium boxes for your brood, adding another box is a pretty good option. You could do this, and move some of the honey frames up into the new box and replace them with foundation in the lower box for them to draw and give the queen a place to lay.

[Potlicker1]

Actually I have 2 mediums on now. They just seem to be loading up with honey and pollen. I'm concerned shes not laying.

[Kathyp]

i don't think two medium is enough.  most of us are the equivalent of two deeps with honey supers on by now.  unless your colony is really small, you should probably add a couple more medium supers for brood.  swap those honey frames out to the sides and open up the middle for the queen to lay.

[Kirk-o]

I would go to Michael Bush's web site and read unlimited brood nest and then the rest of the site it helped me with a similar problem
kirko

[Zoot]

When you're using mediums only you have to be a bit more attentive to how quickly the bees can fill up space. Not knowing how old your hive is I'd venture to say Moonshae advice would be well taken. You need to make some room. At this point in the summer a first or 2nd year colony (in mediums) should easily consist of at least 3 boxes and as many as 4 or 5 with even more added on as supers.

[Potlicker1]

Yea this is a first year colony. It's trulely amazing how much a colony can change from one inspection to the next. One day doing great and the next only marginal. This has been a real learning experience and I appreciate this forum and the advice given. Go bees

[DrKurtG]

Yeah man! I'm with ya on that one. My first year and it's been a real rollercoaster.

[Scadsobees]

I'm not sure what you are seeing, but I'll take a stab at it anyway.....

1. If all the comb is full of something, you need to add more boxes, frames, comb, foundation, etc asap.  If you already have supers on with foundation and they aren't drawing it out, you need to bait them up, with some sugar water with honeybeehealthy or a drawn comb.

2. The queen will sometimes slow way down during a nectar dearth.  This is the time of year that will generally start, depending on where you are.

Rick

[Potlicker1]

I am using 8 frame boxes, but it seems wierd that i'd need 3 brood chambers, but if thier loading up I might need to get over it and do it. With potentially a month and a half left to store surplus honey i'm also wondering if they'll give any extra after the slowdown.

[Kathyp]

not weird.  depends on the bees.  last year i went 3 deep with 10 frame deeps for brood and took two supers of honey.  that, from a package.  this year i have two that are two deep hive bodies and one that is just one deep.  you are only using 8 frames so 3 supers for brood is not at all strange. 

first year don't look for honey, just build up numbers and consider extra honey a bonus.  as you get on toward winter, if they have not stored enough for themselves, feed them up.

[Potlicker1]

Sounds good. I'll take the advice.
GoBees

[Michael Bush]

Three mediums equals two deeps.  Two eight frame mediums equals one deep.  Once the weather is warm it's better to add too many boxes than too few.