Backfilling the brood nest.

[Natalie]

I have a Russian hive that had wall to wall brood a month or so ago, frames from end to end with brood and their population exploded.
I made sure to keep the broodnest open and to add supers in advance.
This hive has 5 mediums on it, 3 were the brood and food storage and the 4th was for a honey super, I added a 5th when they moved into the 4th to keep up with them and moved a frame with honey into it to lure them up.
I did an inspection yesterday and I found that the 5th box that had the one honeycomb in it was still empty and the honey was taken out of that comb.
The 4th box is all honey/pollen and they are backfilling all of the other boxes as well.
I know there is a queen there and I did not see any queen cells and they seem happy.
So what is the deal here? Why are they backfilling when they had plenty of space, even emptying the one comb in the 5th box and moving it I assume.
I know russians overwinter in small clusters but still.
I opened up the brood nest with empty frames so I hope that helps but I am just wondering why they would backfill instead of using the empty supers.
I don't use a queen excluder either.
There is another russian hive that I got at the same time from the same producer and they are doing a similar thing but not to the same extreme, they have more brood going.
How much brood do they need to go into winter with or how many honey frames is it okay to leave in an 8 frame hive body? Just not sure how room to leave the queen.
The weather here has been rainy for weeks, one long wet spring, we have had some sunny days lately and all of my hives are packing in the honey now.

[Brian D. Bray]

I have a Russian hive that had wall to wall brood a month or so ago, frames from end to end with brood and their population exploded.

This is normal for Russian hives just prior to a major flow and/or swarm, mine did the same thing, with both sides of 16 of 16 frames in a double medium 8 frame just before the blackberries started.  There was so much brood that I split the hive because even by adding a super (which I did) there would not have been enough room to house all the bees under 1 roof.  10 days later they swarmed too.  I now have 3 Russian hives after starting the spring with 1.

I made sure to keep the broodnest open and to add supers in advance.

With a Russian hive just keeping the brood nest open is not sufficient to prevent swarming.

This hive has 5 mediums on it, 3 were the brood and food storage and the 4th was for a honey super, I added a 5th when they moved into the 4th to keep up with them and moved a frame with honey into it to lure them up.

Good stragety.

I did an inspection yesterday and I found that the 5th box that had the one honeycomb in it was still empty and the honey was taken out of that comb.
The 4th box is all honey/pollen and they are backfilling all of the other boxes as well.
I know there is a queen there and I did not see any queen cells and they seem happy.
So what is the deal here? Why are they backfilling when they had plenty of space, even emptying the one comb in the 5th box and moving it I assume.
I know russians overwinter in small clusters but still.
I opened up the brood nest with empty frames so I hope that helps but I am just wondering why they would backfill instead of using the empty supers.

Russian bees work in spurts, they build up before a heavy flow and then immediately shut down again and to the same thing for the next flow.They pulled the nectar out of the 5th super because of consolidation of stores.  As the nectar has the moisture content reduced to  the point of being cured honey the bees move the cured honey from the outer reaches of the hive to the central part of the hive.    They will then consolidate that honey into the upper portions of the frames while allowing the queen to begin laying eggs for the next flow.  A lot of the heny that has been backfilled will be used to feed the new brood and as the cells become available the queen will continue to expand the brood nest until there is enough capped brood to work the next flow.  Each flow is followed by a self imposed brood dearth that the Russian bees use as a mite control.
I'm finding with the Russian bees that the honey harvest needs to be more of an on-going process taking a few capped frames from each hive every week or so because of the way they work the brood bust or famine routine and how much they move the honey around.  I'm going to be taking an empty medium box (foundationless frames only) out to the bee yard later this week and take 2-3 frames each from those hives that can spare it.  I do crush and strain so harvesting like that is satisfactory since what honey I produce is for family use, I give some to brothers, sisters, and nieces and nephews so the whole family gets their years supply of honey from me.

I don't use a queen excluder either.
There is another russian hive that I got at the same time from the same producer and they are doing a similar thing but not to the same extreme, they have more brood going.
How much brood do they need to go into winter with or how many honey frames is it okay to leave in an 8 frame hive body? Just not sure how room to leave the queen.
The weather here has been rainy for weeks, one long wet spring, we have had some sunny days lately and all of my hives are packing in the honey now.

The bees will decide how much brood will be reared for overwintering.   If you're using 3 medium 10 frames you'll find the cluster occupying the space between the middle 5 frames of the upper brood chamber at the start of winter (October) and will be down to the middle 3 frames of the upper brood chamber come spring.  If taken off the combs the size of the surviving cluster is closer in size to a softball verses a soccer ball.

I hope that helps you understand the foraging differences between Russians and Italians.

[Natalie]

Brian thank you for all the advice, its much appreciated. :)

[Sparky]

Brian question? I'm finding with the Russian bees that the honey harvest needs to be more of an on-going process taking a few capped frames from each hive every week or so because of the way they work the brood bust or famine routine and how much they move the honey around.
How do you store the honey till you harvest it ? Or do you harvest just the frames, as they are removed ?