Hive Inspection on August 16th,

[harvey]

These are all new first year hives,  four swarms, two packages and a nuc that had to be requeened twice.  All seven hives have one deep full and are laden with good stores of honey.  three hives have the bottom deeps full and are also storing honey in them.  These three are also supered.  Only one hive is actively drawing out the super and filling it.  One of the other hives is drawing a little comb in the super but not much.  Golden rod is just starting,  I have a one acrea field of buckwheat that won't bloom for another two or three weeks.  Also have a yellow thistle.  Looks like small dandelions on a four foot stem with ten to twenty heads each.    The hives with one box full and nothing more?  should they be combined this late in the year or wait and see how they do on the goldenrod and buckwheat?  They have to draw a lot of comb if they want to fill the second box.  The hives with the supers, well as first year hives I didn't expect much.  The very best one is a swarm that I caught in late june.  It has seven frames drawn in the super and most are full of un capped honey.  Other than that the bees were gentle and seemed to be doing well.  I didn't pull the deeps apart to check for brood or queens as the hives are well populated and as gentle as they were today I am sure they are all queenright!     

[Kathyp]

do you have a medium you can put on the single deep for winter?  they can draw a huge amount in a short time if they have a good flow.  if your buckwheat is good, it's a great nectar producer and they have a chance to store quite a bit.

also, if you put a medium on and can feed (later) they can get it drawn out.  you could move them away from the others now, put the med. on, and feed the crap out of them. 

i winter late swarms in one deep.  they  just have to be really full and have a lot of stores.

[harvey]

I do have some mediums.  I have either foundationless or plasticell foundation from dadent.  This time of year maybe they would draw out the mediums with plasticell quicker than drawing their own?  maybe I will try a couple each and see.  The flow should really be picking up right now as the golden rod is coming in and then when that is gone or about gone the buckwheat will be in.  There is also the thistle type dandelions or whatever they are called.   If they had the comb I know they could fill it.  YOU have wintered swarms in a single deep with a super?   I will put supers on top of the deeps and leave the second deep down below for know just to see what happens.  Hopefully not to many choices for them.  I was also thinking maybe I should take a couple drawn and filled frames from the top deep and put in the bottom deep?  maybe that would get them to working the bottom deep?  Might just draw the empty frames in the top deep that way too.  What do ya think?