"Brood in the super, what'll I do..."

[tjc1]

Skip to my Lu, my darlin'...  Oh, sorry... Well, I decided not to put the queen excluder between the supers when she started laying in the lower one, and now she's moved on up (there's another song in there, but I'll resist...) to the upper. They are still ignoring the lower deep. How can I get them to move down? Should I switch the deeps at this point? Or is there nothing to be done about it... :-x BTW, the supers are getting pretty full of honey, and the linden trees are just starting to bloom...

[Steel Tiger]

Couldn't you move the new brood down to the lower super and move honey frames up to fill the upper super to create a honey barrier? Keep an eye on the queen and when she moves down, switch supers so that she stays down. The brood in the super will hatch out and the cells get backfilled with honey. You can probably add a third super while waiting for the brood.

[Finski]

.

brood in super? And what is the problem?
Brood in super is not a problem because they are moved often on purpose over the excluder.

[Kathyp]

not a big deal.  one thing to do that is easy is to add an empty honey super under the one with brood.  the brood will hatch.  the bees will fill the space with honey. 

the queen may want to go into the empty super, but you can do the same again, or make more room for her below.

[sc-bee]

>Well, I decided not to put the queen excluder between the supers

Great move in the right direction. Why limit you queen from laying and therefore limit your foraging population.

[iddee]

When there is enough honey to fill the super, they will move down. Always, the brood will be in and under the honey. They will never store honey under the brood. If you want them to move down, you have to provide enough nectar to fill the area above.

[tjc1]

not a big deal.  one thing to do that is easy is to add an empty honey super under the one with brood.  the brood will hatch.  the bees will fill the space with honey. 

the queen may want to go into the empty super, but you can do the same again, or make more room for her below.

Thanks, everyone, for the great info/suggestions.

Hmmm how about if I move the (mostly empty) lower deep between the supers and the upper deep - reverse the deeps, in other words (rather than put a third super for her to lay in). Part of my concern is the empty lower deep and issues around overwintering (I want to get the supers off by season's end this time around).

[Finski]

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I do not use excluder and I do not count super frames or brood frames.

In late summer I move brood frames togerther and honey frames up.

This time of year, when there are much frames where is brood and honey, those I lift up. Bees emerge and cells will be filled with honey and then capped.

Don't do it so that bees much do twice the honey job, that they must move honey from combs. swarm

[Michael Bush]

"For my part I care not where the queen lays—the more bees the more honey.  If she lays in some of the super combs it can be readily rectified now and again by putting the brood below, and side combs of honey from the lower box above; some of the emerging brood also may be placed at the side of the upper box to give plenty of room below."--Isaac Hopkins, The Australasian Bee Manual

[Oblio13]

There's no such thing as too much fuel unless you're on fire.

There's no such thing as too much ammo unless you're trying to swim.

There's no such thing as too much brood... I can't think of a time when there might be too much brood.

If there's brood in the super, it's no longer a super. Count your blessings.

[Finski]

If there's brood in the super, it's no longer a super. Count your blessings.

Commercial Beekeeping in Australia:

Swarming


Swarming is most likely to be a problem during the build up period in late spring/early summer. Most
beekeepers do not consider swarming to be a serious impediment to honey production. Methods of
controlling swarming include taking healthy brood and bees from strong colonies and using them to
make up nucleus colonies or new colonies or to strengthen weak colonies; placing foundation in strong
hives; moving frames of brood from the brood box to supers above the excluder; and moving colonies
from good breeding conditions to a likely honey crop. Swarming is less of a problem when the colony
is headed by a young queen.
.

[tjc1]

Thanks again, everyone, for the great responses/info. I don't mind that there is brood in the supers per se, and I agree that the more brood the better. I was just wondering why they were not working down into the lower deep, which has been there since the winter. From what everyone says, I imagine that will eventually happen as they fill the supers with capped honey. It does seem to me to argue against putting the second deep underneath the first, which seemed to make sense to me and has the added benefit of keeping the brood warmer in the spring...