feeding beees

[pembroke]

I have a hive that is one deep and one medium started this year. I have fed until the med is full and The bottom is about half. I read that in my area ( Louisville KY) that I should have two med full going into winter.Question: do I put another med on top of the full one or beneath the full med.? Will be using a hive top feeder. Thanks. Pembroke

[caticind]

The important question here is actually, how many frames of BEES do you have? 

Do you really have only 5 frames currently covered in bees?  If so, you have a problem on your hands.

Many first year beekeepers are given the terrible advice to feed all through the first year until winter.  You need to have not only enough stores to feed the bees until spring, but also enough bees to live until spring.  How many bees you have is related to how much space the bees have for brood to be laid in.  If you feed too much, the bees fill all the space with honey and do not have enough room for eggs.  It's called being honey-bound.  This can lead to a too-small winter cluster of bees which cannot keep itself warm and may freeze even though they have plenty of food.

If you only have 5 frames with brood on them, I would say you have fed too much and made your colony honey-bound.  Stop feeding.  No really, stop!  Let the bees have some time to eat a little of the accumulated stores in the deep and to lay more winter bees. 

You might try putting the medium on between the deep and the medium you already have and seeing if they will draw out enough comb to lay in.  But at this time of year the bees often do not want to draw more comb.

If you happen to have access to an extractor, I would actually advise you to extract two or three deep frames of the stored syrup and give the empty drawn comb back to the bees to lay brood in.  You can feed the syrup back to them in early spring if they need a boost, but they need room to lay in right now.

[pembroke]

My bad for not telling about the bees. The hive is full of bees, no really there is hardly any room that a bee is not occupying. Deep and med. The med that I'll be adding has already been drawn out. Ready to store or lay, whichever. Thanks. Pembroke

[BrentX]

I would take every other filled frame from the medium in hive, replacing them with your fresh drawn but empty comb frames.  The frames removed from the medium I would place in the new medium, alternating with a frame of fresh drawn but empty comb between each.  Then I dont think it matters wether the new box is above or below the original medium.

As the month wears on watch that the new frames actually do get filled.  Come end of the month I want the center frames in each box heavily loaded with this honey/sugar buzz mix.  The bees will winter in the center of the hive as long as there is ample food available.  Any lightly loaded frames I would move to the outside of the box.  But most likely the bees will do this for themselves, as long as the cold holds off for a few weeks.

[caticind]

My bad for not telling about the bees. The hive is full of bees, no really there is hardly any room that a bee is not occupying. Deep and med. The med that I'll be adding has already been drawn out. Ready to store or lay, whichever. Thanks. Pembroke

Whew.  Now that is much better, and empty drawn comb is just what is needed.  In that case, I'm agreed with BrentX about how to add the medium.

I still say watch how much space is brood vs. stores, and I probably would not continue to feed in your situation.  If the hive is that packed, they should also still be bringing in nectar and pollen.