Hive configuration

[Laurie B]

I wanted to ask someone if it was okay if there are occasional cells of honey in and pollen in with the brood. I have very active gathering of nectar and pollen which are being stored in the lower deep, and maybe three active frames of brood of all statges in the upper deep with honey and pollen as well. I have some weirded out burred frames...about 2 frames and I was wondering if I should pull those out (they have honey only) or if I should put some empty mostly drawn frames into the brood section or pull the lower deep or what.....I thought I found the queen, but I did not see any drones.
There seems to be a specific group of bees up in the Nursery deep and another group working one side of the storage deep. I haven't seen enough hives to know if its normail or if I got them all goofed up. I think its a good sign that I have larvae, eggs and closed brood...as well as new fuzzy bees.
There is a lot of empty drawn comb...it looks clean. I guess they clean it out over winter and then start filling again in spring.
So should the brood be in the upper deep or the lower deep? and do they clean out nectar and pollen, feed it to the brood and clear cells for brood to be laid?

[beesting]

Hi Laurie,
There is one very important point to know in beekeeping I don't think anyone has mentioned here yet, and that is:

The Queen will never cross or pass a Honey storage area to lay more eggs! Honey acts as a barrier to her.

This means if the workers are bringing in pollen & Nector at a frantic pace and will not go into a higher super they will pack it in any open cell.
This leads to mass congestion in the hive as the Queen cannot lay a good brood pattern {in the center of frames} when the empty cells are being filled with nector & Pollen.

So, the bees get into a swarming mode and start building new Queen cells here and there in anticipation of swarming.

What you the beekeeper has to do is move the frames around!

This is what I try to do, put some good empty drawn comb or even new undrawn frames in the center of the cluster,{maybe only 2 frames} hoping the Queen will lay new eggs in them. At the same time move some frames from the outside of the cluster up into an added top super, but not the ones with sealed brood in them.{check back in a few days if possible to see what's going on in the hive.}

The sealed brood has to be kept warm at night when the temps are going below freezing or it is frozen and dies, so you have to somehow give the bees more space without separating the brood from the bee cluster.

Some prefer to switch supers around at this time of year, others make splits, although I always waited until the last week of March, because the weather is un-predictable in spring.

Welcome to the world of intensive beekeeping, we ALL learn more in bee management every year. I like to call it a practice in beekeeping as in "practicing medicine."{Doctors}

Best Regards........beesting.

[HarryVanderpool]

Nice Job, Beesting! Well said.

[LaurieB]

Beesting,
Thanks for mentioning the thing about queens and crossing honey. I have never heard that or read it for that matter. I guess I need to read more, but for now I am working on my new philosophy....if you want to be good at something you have to do it..over and over and over. So pathetically, I cracked open my hive and spent about an hour going through all 20 frames. And no I did not leave the frames scattered willy nilly all over the place, I put them in empty supers in order.....which reminds me, I am going to number my frames after I shuffle them so that I can track that too. I guess I should have dropped down to one super over the winter, but I left one with honey in for the bees to feed on because I don't see the hive during the week in the winter.....dark when I leave, dark when I come home. I am taking my father in law to the Lane County BA bee school, so hopefully he will be able to help me out as he is retired and home during daylight. So I guess Saturday I will be pulling the hive apart again and following your advise. It should be sunny and dry, as that is all we are having right now.
Doesn't look good for the upcoming season. We have only had an inch of rain so far this year.
Any further advise is greatly appreciated, and yes I am medicating....
Thanks.

[LaurieB]

Oh, I think I posted into oblivion somewhere.
So Beesting et al.
I should have my brood super on the bottom and put any drawn but empty frames in the middle of the brood and leave a frame of pollen/honey on the outside and then put the honey super up top with the filled honey and pollen frames and partial or other frames and let them sort it out and check it in a week or so?