All medium frame hives?

[RangerBrad]

Using all medium frame hives seem very interesting and benificial that you could move frames around and use them however would be best at the time, harvest the honey and manipulate the frames for the season etc... My question is if you feed your bees sugar syrup wouldn't that defeat the purpose. How would you know which is syrup and which is honey cross contamination of the same box's you could harvest etc...? Thank's, Brad

[Michael Bush]

Bees move anything anywhere.  If you ever feed syrup you already have this problem.  If you never feed syrup you already don't have this problem.  Where you move frames is the least of the problem.  Feeding syrup is the problem.

[BrentX]

Rule #1;  dont feed sugar during the nectar flow.

I remove the frames loaded with sugar buzz during the flow.  They wait in the freezer in case they are needed next winter (pre flow in the early spring).

If yours is a first year hive that is struggling and in need of sugar to build up I recommend dont worry about differentiating the sugar buzz frames from the honey, leave both for the bees to winter with.  The goal here is to get the bees to make it through that first winter.  Then next year the hive will be well positioned to make you a honey crop.

[AllenF]

Don't forget that if you run all medium boxes and you have to medicate, keep your honey super frames separate from the brood frames forever on.  Just something else to keep in mind.   

[Michael Bush]

The good thing about medicating with deeps and shallows and a queen excluder is that the excluder also keeps them from moving fumidil or terramycin  or other contaminates up into the supers... ;)