spring management

[backyard warrior]

My question is in spring if i have three deep bodies for the brood nest and several drawn honey supers will that give the bees enuff room to produce a large honey crop without swarming or will i still have to open up the brood nest to prevent the swarm or should i split the hive and stick with just two deeps.  All equipment is drawn out comb that im talking about.
If i can get away with it id rather have a large hive during the flow and do the splits after the main flow to get a good honey harvest.   Thanks for the info in advance chris

[iddee]

Definitely an opinion question.....

If it were mine, I would stack the supers on the 3 deeps. I would first check the deeps for a honey cap in either of the bottom 2. If found, I would scratch enough open to get them to move it up.

[organicfarmer]

i think it will mostly depend on the crowding inside the hive, around broodnest area. You could have 2 deep and plenty of room for brood expansion w/out opening broodnest or 3 deep choke full and swarming impulse raging like hormones in a teenager. i really appreciate Walt Wright on nectar and swarm management. Worth the reading. It'll answer many of your questions on that (and raise many more as well!)

[Countryboy]

How old is the queen?  Older queens seem more prone to swarming than one year old queens.

What is in those 3 deep boxes?  Saying that you have 3 deeps with drawn combs doesn't say much.  How many empty combs do you have?  Are the boxes still plugged out with honey?

Try to get empty drawn comb above the broodnest.  If your hive coming out of winter has an empty deep on the bottom, the cluster in the middle deep, and a deep of honey on top, put the honey on the bottom, and the empty deep above the cluster.  As soon as you start to see a few dandelions popping, start throwing supers on.

will that give the bees enuff room to produce a large honey crop

Do you have the bees to make a good honey crop?  If you don't have enough bees, it won't matter how much room you give them.

If you have bees in 3 deeps, you ALREADY have a large honey crop.

should i split the hive and stick with just two deeps.

Why split the hive?  You can run 2 deeps without splitting the hive.

I would recommend that you decide what you are after.  Do you want a good honey crop?  Are you trying to prevent swarming? 

If it were me, I'd buy 2 queens and split this into 3 single deep hives with an excluder, with 3-5 supers of drawn comb above.  Try to make these splits 6 weeks before your main flow kicks in.  (Keep in mind that I am in Ohio and don't have SHB problems...yet.)

[The Bix]

I would scratch enough open to get them to move it up.

Iddee, this is a new concept for me.  I've heard of removing frames of honey and replacing with empty frames in the deep to break up the honey cap, but this is the first I've heard of scratching them open (remember I'm pretty green too).  Do you do this instead of moving the frames out to break up the honey cap?

[iddee]

If the 3 bottom boxes are deeps, and all you add are mediums, you can't swap frames. If you place honey frames under empty comb, the bees will only move it to the top if it is open. If left capped, they leave it as is. You can scratch off the caps and they will move it to the top of the hive.

[backyard warrior]

Country boy thanks for your insight the deeps are just comb no honey in them. Right now the hive only has 2 deeps and one medium on it. I was wondering if i put a third deep on the hive of just drawn comb and then 3 or 4 mediums for honey will that help relieve congestion so the bees wont swarm before the honey flow is what i am getting at  thanks  Chris

[FRAMEshift]

Country boy thanks for your insight the deeps are just comb no honey in them. Right now the hive only has 2 deeps and one medium on it. I was wondering if i put a third deep on the hive of just drawn comb and then 3 or 4 mediums for honey will that help relieve congestion so the bees wont swarm before the honey flow is what i am getting at  thanks  Chris

Bees swarm from overcrowding in either the broodnest or the honey supers.  You can releave that by adding honey supers and more brood space.  But reproductive swarms will not be stopped by adding honey supers or an extra brood box.  The bees create overcrowding on purpose by backfilling the brood nest.  The solution for that is to open the brood nest by inserting empty frames into the existing brood nest.  So yes, you should add honey and brood space as needed but also open the existing brood nest.