Hive #4 Inspection... Chock FULL of... Hummer Food

[Jen]

This is hive #4. Going up, a deep, a medium, and a super. I'm only into the top super right now. It's FULL of hummingbird food! Crap!

On the upper part of the frames there is honey, from there down, on all the frames its hummer food, you can follow the color change.

Going back into the middle medium now. Please be brood ~

TOP SUPER








This one has about 10 larvae in the upper right corner





MIDDLE MEDIUM

YAAAY! BROOD GALORE, LARVA, QUEEN... AND HUMMER FOOD! YAAAY!
LOOKS LIKE THIS MEDIUM HAS A MIXTURE OF NECTAR AND HUMMER FOOD







DEEP - A VAST WASTE LAND WITH SOME POLLEN AND... HUMMER FOOD

[LazyBkpr]

Looks like they are getting that deep going..   I do not believe that the hummingbird syrup will harm them in any way, however....     When you DO put supers on you intend to extract, you do NOT want that in your honey...    I am not sure what they are feeding their syrup to hummingbirds with, but... as I stated before.. I would be finding out and complaining..   In a politically correct manner the first time.. we wont talk about the second time 

[Jen]

Yes they are getting the deep going, but one of my questions is: the queen needs to get down there and start laying, but will she want to lay in those deep frames with all the scattered pollen and syrup?

The medium in the middle is full of brood that's going to hatch soon, which means she may just stay in that medium and repeat business... scratching head 

[LazyBkpr]

Not sure how to tell you to fix the situation..  In my hives I would move about three brood frames down to the center of the bottom box. slide the brood frames together above it and put the empty frames on the outside...  but you have two different sized boxes so that obviously wont work..  I would hope the queen will move down as fall approaches.

[Jen]

I've half a mind to eliminate the deep all together, bring the middle brood medium down to the bottom, then add a new medium on top of that box, then place the ruby honey medium on top. Three mediums ~

Or, switch the bottom deep with the middle brood and let the queen go up into the deep. Keep the ruby honey on top of the stack ~

Or, maybe I should just leave it alone for a couple of weeks, wait for the hatch and see if the bees will take her down stairs ~

PS. I have to admit, and I know you already know it, I am running into difficulty with switching out frames during times like these.

[barry42001]

I would drop a few medium frames into the deep, it will attract the queen down, even if they draw comb on the bottom bars who cares, it will probably be drone brood, sorta built in IPM lol.

[Jen]

Funny you mention that Barry cause the thought did enter my mind. I would think tho that that bees would make wonky comb on the bottoms of the mediums tho. That's not such a bad thing, but I could leave the medium frames in the deep for a couple of weeks and see if it bates the queen...

You mean a few med frames of brood, right?