Good morning Baker
1. "There should be pollen stored on brood frames in a rainbow around the brood. Also bees will place pollen in the frames on either side of the brood nest. Are these the frames that are pollen plugged?
Yes and no. And that is the norm for brood frames, they are normal with pollen and nectar/honey thru the honey flow. However, during the summer dearth when nectar has slowed down the brood frames get pollen plugged around the capped brood.
2. "Spring is when you want to reverse those hive bodies, giving the queen more room to lay. She likes to move upward more than she does outward.
Yup, I do know about this and my hives this year have already been reversed. It's odd this year because this is the first time I have done the reverse hive boxes this early, in our upper northern Calif weather. Very early spring.
3. "I would do as iddee suggests. Manipulate the frames.
And here lies the problem. All frames that don't harbor brood/eggs/larvae, get stuffed with pollen. I'm talking about frames with empty or partially empty drawn wax... gets stuffed with pollen, Quickly! Which in turn runs me out of drawn wax frames to give the queens room to lay.
4. "I wonder if this situation speaks to the age of the work force within the colony. Coming out of winter with an older work force and not enough young nurse bees?
Hmm, I'm not sure how this would apply to foragers coming home with double the amount of pollen than they need.
In my 15 years of beekeeping, it only been this way with the pollen plugging for about the last 5 years.