Second deep brood box is all honey

[Rex]

Good news: My bees are finally moving up into their second story :)

Bad news: The second story is all honey  :?

It's probably not "bad news" but maybe some of you have seen this before?  I was hoping to see the comb being drawn out and cells being prepped for the queen to do her thing.  But it looks like they're using the extra room to store lots of capped and uncapped honey. 4-5 frames of it so far in the one hive and 1-2 in the other.

Will they eventually shift the honey out when the population is bigger and they need room for more babies?

[jsmob]

How many supers are on the hive? Is this a package hive you started this year?
The honey flow is close to being over for this year in Sac. We may get a short flow in September or October. If you have two deep supers and it is a new hive then they should have the Queen in the lower super and the top (second) filled. Last year I took honey from the top and left about four frames and then in the fall I was able to take some more and left them with 40LBS. I got a total of 55Lbs off them.
I am just saying this because I live in the heart of Rancho Cordova so we are only a few miles apart and that is what happend to me last year. Or you may want to put a medium super on and leave it all tell last of October.

[Rex]

Thanks for the reply.  It's good to hear from someone in my area.

Both hives are new, installed the first weekend in May.  Started out with one deep brood box for each.  I put a second deep box on both about 3 weeks ago after they'd drawn and filled out 8/10 of their frames.  So it is just the two boxes.  No honey supers (wasn't expecting to have any honey this year).

[jsmob]

Ya they said that to me also. :-D

[KONASDAD]

if you want, extract 2 or 3 frames of their honey, replace them back in hive above brood area and place a medium on top w/ undrawn frames. It will give queen some room to move up and lay, reduce swarming instinct, give you honey, ....

[ElDoBill]

Rex, Nice to see you and Annette are having good luck with the honey flow.  I have two nucs started in May on the 17th and 22nd. I fed them sugar water until last week.  The 17th nuc has drawn 1/2 of a frame of comb and the 22nd none.  The 22nd nuc has no brood only nectar and pollen, the 17th nuc has a few larvae but is out of space also. Out of space and won't draw comb. I combined them yesterday but I doubt they can draw comb and fill it with stores in time for winter.

[Rex]

Wow Bill, maybe yours will combine successfully and all will be well.  Hope so!

So it sounds like I should just let them draw out and fill as much of the upper box as they can before winter.  If they do that much, even without starting brood up top, I think they will be ok.  If the Fall flow comes and goes and they don't fill them both up, I'll think of what to do then.

So far so good. Thanks again everyone for the advice!

[bassman1977]

Ya they said that to me also.

Me too and I got 100 lbs that year and 5 boxes full of drawn comb.  We must be the lucky ones.  :-D

[ElDoBill]

Rex, It's not all doom and gloom, I have a package that has drawn out 3 mediums and I added a honey super last weekend, the same day the starthistle bloomed in my area.  I'd be happy with even one super of that. I may have to feed the combine thru the winter and try to split them in the spring.  Always a learning experience.