Single brood box? Double brood box? Or no queen excluder at all?

[BurleyBee]

I?m still learning how to properly manage with an excluder, but I experimented last year with 1 hive and the drawn comb I had; it worked beautifully.  I loved how organized the hive was; especially the brood box.

In y?all?s experience, will they draw comb above excluder?  I have 5 deeps of honey supers.  Could I place excluder in the way HP suggest and checkerboard in foundation with drawn comb?

[Lesgold]

Hi BurleyBee,

If your hive is ready to expand and there is nectar coming in, the bees will draw out and fill with honey anything you put above the excluder. I put a box of foundation above a queen excluder on a strong hive a couple of days ago. The bees had half of the foundation drawn overnight. Sometimes you meet a bait comb above the excluder to encourage the bees to come up, sometimes you don?t.  Checker boarding in the spring  is useful for swarm management if performed correctly.

[Bill Murray]

I usually put 1 bait super on March 1 here in FL. Every bait super always has eggs or brood before the end of the month.  If I want my comb drawn out I usually make those hives queen-less. Reason being they have no brood to feed. Hence nectar goes into wax production.

[Acebird]

If I want my comb drawn out I usually make those hives queen-less.

Hmmm?  That would set back the hive and you would get less drawn comb in the long run.

[Bill Murray]

No Ace it does not. No brood to feed.