Honey stores in deep

[Mason]

It seems that my bees are storing honey on the deep brood box and not so much in the supers.  I decided to try a queen excluder in one hive to see if they will move the honey up and use the deep for brood and less honey storage.  If they don't I suppose I will just rob the full deep frames when the time is right.

Anyone care to shed some light on this...........  Only a second season beek here so I am open to suggestions.

[Kathyp]

the excluder will probably defeat your purpose.  only one deep? 

[wd]

if I had bees moving down, I would add under, not on top

[Mason]

I have one deep and a medium, excluder and another medium on top.  I only put the excluder on one hive just as an experiment.

Using the deep and the medium for brood.  I have already flipped the configuration to the medium on the bottom and back again to try and even out the dispersion of brood production.  It worked pretty good but the deep and brood medium seem a bit honey bound.  I have also taken some frames of capped honey and moved them to the top to see if the might encourage the bees to store on the top floor.

[Kathyp]

one deep and one medium might not be enough room.  also stop flipping boxes.  all that does is mess up the bees.

you probably have a pretty long season?  i don't know when your major flow is, but i think i'd add another medium UNDER what you have.  take one or two frames of brood that do not have honey over the brood, and put those in your new medium.  put the new empty frames in the old  medium directly over the brood you have just move into your new box.  put the deep on top and then you can super for honey.

you don't want any honey dividing your brood space.  the queen will not cross it.  by putting those empty frames in the middle you should be giving her access to both the top and bottom brood box and making more room for her to lay.  if the flow is strong and she needs the room to lay, they will both draw out the bottom box and store honey above.

[wd]

kathyp, do you think there's a possibility they'll swarm?

[Kathyp]

there's always that possibility. you are in a difficult positing.  you want them a little crammed for honey, but the queen needs room to lay.  since i don't know  when your peak flow for honey is, i can only tell you what i would do if i found the same.  you want them to store honey below for winter, but if they do it to early, there is no room for brood.  you have to figure out a balance and much of that depends on your climate and flow.

anyone close to you that can take a look?