what do i do w/full frames of honey?

[newguy]

i just opened my two hives which made it through the winter(hive 1 :1 deep 2 mediums,  hive 2 : 1 deep 1 medium). my intention was to remove a medium from each hive to crowd the bees to get rid of unused space. hive 1 has a ton of bees left and lots of honey/sugar syrup from fall. hive 2 has small amount of bees but lots of honey.  i thought that they would be left with lots space and some honey but really they have very little space and loads of honey. there is plenty of room for the queen to start laying but only to start, i dont want to cause them to swarm. if i feed the extra honey back to them they will not have much space left at all. what should i do?

[MrILoveTheAnts]

First off besides crowding what is the reason for removing the boxes? Unless it's going to be getting cold next month there's no reason to take them off. Leave that box on to be filled up over the next two months.

[newguy]

im crowding them for the same reason you dont add a whole season worth of boxes on in the spring, they just do better in the right amount of space as opposed to excess space. i dont think im alone on this

[Michael Bush]

In Maine, this time of year I'd maintain a reasonable space.  In other words don't let them run out of space, but don't give them too much.  It's still winter there isn't it?

[newguy]

we have had snow for the last three or four weeks and 80+ mph winds with 5" of rain last weekend, however today it is 72 F and sunny.  this was the first chance i had to open the hive this year. i wanted to check stores and feed them pollen, but i think i may have waited to long as they are already bringing in pollen. and with all that honey im worried about space, will they use the honey quickly when brood production  starts? or should i give them more space by either replacing full frames with empty frames(which i dont have) or should i put that medium back on.

[Michael Bush]

>will they use the honey quickly when brood production  starts?

Yes.  They will burn a frame of honey and pollen for every frame of brood.

> or should i give them more space by either replacing full frames with empty frames(which i dont have) or should i put that medium back on.

I'd leave them what stores they have to use for brood.