Finally!!Finally!! They are making some honey, but I have a question??

[annette]

OK, I just went up to visit my bees this morning. All three hives seem to be well and making honey now.

My one strong hive has finally filled up one medium super totally with uncapped nectar. I am holding my breath to see if they will cap it.
The medium under it is also starting to fill up with uncapped nectar and guess what I found there???  The queen!!!! Walking around on a frame of uncapped nectar. She has no room to lay anything there.

Next medium super down (3rd from top) there is lots, and lots of room for her to lay eggs.

My question is:  Will the workers force the queen down to the empty supers below??

My gut tells me everything is ok and she will go down a super , but wanted some opinions.

Thanks
Annette

[Moonshae]

The 3rd super down from the top...how far up is it from the bottom? If you're using all mediums, it doesn't really matter where she lays, you can just rearrange frames as needed. Hopefully you won't find 1/4 side of brood and the rest honey, though.

I would think that the workers will guide her down to a place she can lay.

[KONASDAD]

take a frame w/o brood, nectar etc and insert in "3rd box down" and move nectar laden frame ino super w/ uncapped nectar. Take the fraem from your super(probably doesn't have anything" and insert ino slot 1 or 10 of "bound" medium. You make room for queen, make more honey, and get another frame drawn in process. Or do nothing if swarm season is over.

[annette]

The 3rd super down from the top...how far up is it from the bottom? If you're using all mediums, it doesn't really matter where she lays, you can just rearrange frames as needed. Hopefully you won't find 1/4 side of brood and the rest honey, though.

I would think that the workers will guide her down to a place she can lay.

The hive is made up of 5 medium supers in all. I do not understand what you mean by 1/4 side of brood?  Please explain.

Thanks
annette

[Moonshae]

If 1/4 of one side of a frame is brood (just and example of a very small amount of brood on a frame that is otherwise honey), you won't be able to harvest the honey on the frame, essentially rendering the whole frame useless.

[annette]

take a frame w/o brood, nectar etc and insert in "3rd box down" and move nectar laden frame ino super w/ uncapped nectar. Take the fraem from your super(probably doesn't have anything" and insert ino slot 1 or 10 of "bound" medium. You make room for queen, make more honey, and get another frame drawn in process. Or do nothing if swarm season is over.

I am not totally understanding this. The 3 rd box down already has frames with nothing in it. So you are saying I should add some empty frames into the two top supers which is totally full of uncapped nectar, to make room for the queen to move around up there??  I really want the queen to go down into the bottom supers and not stay in the supers that are filling up with nectar. I was going to add another super on top for them to fill up with nectar.
I am confused right now.

Please advise.

Annette

[annette]

If 1/4 of one side of a frame is brood (just and example of a very small amount of brood on a frame that is otherwise honey), you won't be able to harvest the honey on the frame, essentially rendering the whole frame useless.

OK I understand what you are saying. That is why I would think that after that brood is born, they would clean out the cells and start to fill it with nectar.

[KONASDAD]

Sorry for misunderstanding. The queen is unikley to go down, . You might consider reversing brood area, but t6hat is not universally accepted practice. it breaks up brood area temporarily. Usually done in spring around here. I dont personally reverse, but it would put queen in bottom, w/ empty super above her for brood laying.

[annette]

OK so what I am understanding is:

Instead of adding a super on top, I would place the empty super below the top nectar filled super??

Also, I would take the frame the queen is on, and move that down below??

Thanks you so much for helping me
Annette

[annette]

Does anyone have any more ideas on this. I need to add the extra super tomorrow. Would I add it under the top super???

What about the queen. Just let her do whatever??? Or perhaps she will move on up into the new super I will add tomorrow.

More info needed please!!!!

[annette]

Well I just added another super right underneath the top super that was filled with uncapped nectar. If the queen wants to move into it, well she can. I do not want to stress about where the queen is and what she will do next.

I appreciate all the help I receive and I thank you all

Annette

[Ross]

They will push the queen down as the brood hatches.  They simply back fill with nectar until she has no place to lay.  I see it all the time.  The queen won't lay unless the workers polish up a cell for her.  If nectar is coming in, that gets priority.

[Flygirl]

Hey Annette ~

You're in California, it's the end of June & you're just getting nectar / honey?  Isn't it late?  I guess it's late all over!  So if it's late in California I'll probably never see honey in Alaska :(  ???  At least for this summer?  I think I need to start preparing for winter & it's only June ( sob!!)

It seems like everyone is reporting a cold spring & summer but since I'm in a northern climate it's sort of hard to take.  I guess I need to plan a fall or winter adventure in the south :)

I enjoy your posts as you're an experienced  "girl beek" ( as my son says :)  )

Thanks for your posts & I hope your eye sting is better!  FG

[Brian D. Bray]

When using all medium boxes you can move the frames wherever you need to.  If you have brood frames in the honey super remember that frames 1 & 10 (1& 8 in an 8 frame) are storage frames so taking the storage frames up into the honey super and moving the brood frames down solves the problem.  If you have a 3 box brood chamber that gives 6 or more frames to move brood into from honey supers.

[annette]

Hey Annette ~

You're in California, it's the end of June & you're just getting nectar / honey?  Isn't it late?  I guess it's late all over!  So if it's late in California I'll probably never see honey in Alaska :(  ???  At least for this summer?  I think I need to start preparing for winter & it's only June ( sob!!)

It seems like everyone is reporting a cold spring & summer but since I'm in a northern climate it's sort of hard to take.  I guess I need to plan a fall or winter adventure in the south :)

I enjoy your posts as you're an experienced  "girl beek" ( as my son says :)  )

Thanks for your posts & I hope your eye sting is better!  FG

Thank you so much for your post. Yes it is very late to be getting honey but I am happy that they have started to make something significant. Time will tell if they indeed cap it and do not eat it all. That already happened that they started to make the honey and then ate most of it.  Very bad year around here for honey. Too, too dry. I do wish you luck with getting honey this year. It must be hard living in such a cold climate. Although I complain about the heat around here, I would not like it always cold.

Thank you also for your good wishes. As you can see I have much to learn about this hobby and I am sure I will continue to have many questions in the future. My eye is totally better. Take care and best wishes from one girl beek to another

Annette

[annette]

When using all medium boxes you can move the frames wherever you need to.  If you have brood frames in the honey super remember that frames 1 & 10 (1& 8 in an 8 frame) are storage frames so taking the storage frames up into the honey super and moving the brood frames down solves the problem.  If you have a 3 box brood chamber that gives 6 or more frames to move brood into from honey supers.

Brian You are a storehouse filled with knowledge and I always appreciate when you come forth to help me. I will keep this in mind. Right now, I just added another empty super below the top super which is filled with uncapped nectar. The 3rd super down from the top is where the queen is hanging out right now. I guess she will make her way up into that empty super I just placed on top. Is this ok??

In letting her go wherever she wants, at least I will not have a swarm from them. I can deal with moving the frames around later on when I want to consolidate the honey frames from the brood frames.

Does this sound like a good idea Brian????

[Brian D. Bray]

When using all medium boxes you can move the frames wherever you need to.  If you have brood frames in the honey super remember that frames 1 & 10 (1& 8 in an 8 frame) are storage frames so taking the storage frames up into the honey super and moving the brood frames down solves the problem.  If you have a 3 box brood chamber that gives 6 or more frames to move brood into from honey supers.

Brian You are a storehouse filled with knowledge and I always appreciate when you come forth to help me. I will keep this in mind. Right now, I just added another empty super below the top super which is filled with uncapped nectar. The 3rd super down from the top is where the queen is hanging out right now. I guess she will make her way up into that empty super I just placed on top. Is this ok??

This sounds like you just put on the 5th box.  I think you'll find that for the most part, the 4th box is as high as she will go.  A slatted rack to seperate the brood chamber often works to keep the queen down similar to an excluder but doesn't restrict the worker traffic.  I find a slatted rack at both the top and bottom of the brood chamber also gives a little more oops room when timing supering.

In letting her go wherever she wants, at least I will not have a swarm from them. I can deal with moving the frames around later on when I want to consolidate the honey frames from the brood frames.

Does this sound like a good idea Brian????

As you apparently understand from my previous post that using the outer storage combs in the brood boxes to exchange with any brood frames in honey supers you have proably already figured out that adjusting the "clean" combs (storage with no brood0 for "dirty" combs (brood combs in honey supers) can happen at any time that is convient for the beekeeper.  You're good to go.