Good news, I think

[Yankee11]

Above 60 today. Went to check my 2 out yards and all hives in those yards were flying. I pulled frames in 3 hives today and I was surprised. I found brood in all 3 hives. One hive from each out yard and one here at the house.

My favorite hive has at 3 frames of brood. I stopped looking once I found the queen on a frame of eggs,

I think I may have a dilemma. The upper deeps are still full of capped honey. These hives still have tons of honey in them. Never had this before. Will they use this amount of honey to raise the brood. If not, the queen will not have room to lay.  Some I can use in my nucs I have to make up. Do I extract some of it so I can give the comb back to the hive?

How do I know how much to leave in each hive for brood. Also, I also saw shiny stuff in the cells in bottom brood box that was not capped. Looked like nectar, but I cant cant image where from. Supposed to be in upper 60's lower 70's this week.

All in all a great day.

[Beeracuda]

I looked at a couple of my hives last week and I'm in the same boat.  One of the hive had 3 or 4 frames with some brood but the rest was completely full of honey.

[Jen]

Might I recommend LazyBkpr Scott ~ he makes these situations clear and easy to understand

[barry42001]

I would be very cautious about pulling any honey just yet,  maybe just a couple frames for yourself. this is the time of the year when the Queen starts to truly ramp up her egg laying. That translates directly in to consumed stores. this is also the time of the year when colonies will starve themself because they eaten all the stores and there's not enough pollen or nectar coming in to support all the thousands of new mouths to feed. Little later on when you know with certainty a major flow is on, remove what you want.

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[Jen]

Nicely put Barry    If the weather man remains true, week after next I may be able to get into my hive. I may be facing the same situation

[barry42001]

citrus is already started blooming in the southern half of Florida, hasn't made it quite to me yet. but I am expecting oak and maple and other trees coming to bloom shortly.

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[Perry]

Good advice by Barry. More hives are lost in March than most other months for the exact reasons he mentions.

[tecumseh]

I would suggest that Barry's advice is nicely stated.  Of course after waiting this long and putting in all the work and preparation you could remove frames of honey and then have the hive starve two weeks before spring truely arrives?

I would really wonder at how much of the honey you looked at was capped.  If anything at this time of year I would systematically remove any SOLID FRAMES of CAPPED HONEY directly adjacent (beside and above) to the brood frames and routinely uncap these frames (I typically use a fork and scratch lightly).  for some reason uncapping is a difficult decision for bees and by uncapping the frames next to the brood area this assist in the constant expansion of the brood area.  a solid frame of capped honey can act as a wall to brood area expansion as will a solid frame of pollen... both pretty much accomplish the same thing as far as I can tell.

[lazy shooter]

Tecumseh:

Have you started inspections this year?

Lazy

[Yankee11]

Yea, I am reluctant to remove anything just yet.

I am thinking I will start rearranging though. Moving anything with open space to the centers of both deeps and the honey and pollen to the outsides.  Maybe frames that are partially capped and partially opened scratch the caps on those like tech says. I think we are past
any prolonged cold spells. May have some cold snaps come through but they shouldn't last.

I was just surprised to see the amount of capped brood with the cold weather we have had the last 3 weeks. Makes me wonder what they are gonna do with a week or two of upper 60's low 70's. I saw quiet a bit of eggs yesterday also.

[iddee]

Put the empties between the brood and the pollen, NOT between 2 brood frames.

[Yankee11]

Thanks Iddee,

I was gonna leave brood frames as is. Maybe move the to the center of the box then start the empties/ partial empties on the outside of the brood frames. then honey/pollen frames on other sides of empties. In lower box. Then empties right above brood frames in upper box.

or

Should I move all empties to lower box and move any capped honey to upper box and try and force her to use most of lower box. Seems like they prefer to go up more than across.

Also, how warm before they start drawing frames?

[iddee]

Lower box =  honey..pollen..1 empty..brood..1 empty..pollen..honey.

The rest doesn't matter. The less empty in the upper box, the less heat loss.

[Yankee11]

Got it. Thanks iddee

[LazyBkpr]

I can't add much to that. As Tec said, uncapping some may help them decide to USE it, and if they dont use it, they will very likely MOVE it to make room in the brood nest.
   I like to keep a full frame of honey to the outside, on each side of the brood nest.  Putting in empty comb to replace excess capped, and freezing the capped honey will let you drop it back in if you get a dearth or another cold snap that causes them to start using the stores in the hive.  If they are bringing in nectar, doing that is more likely to help than hurt. Nurse bees prefer Nectar over honey. Mostly, its choosing the method you like and being mindful of the weather.

[barry42001]

the only thing I can think to add to this is always the possibility that you fall honeys which typically are prone to crystallization is something you might check make sure it's actually liquid that they can use.  I have seen bees throw out crystallized honey.  that's probably not the case here but is something to think about.

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[Yankee11]

All good stuff to carry with me to the yards.

I know one thing, I pretty much left them with a full deeps of capped honey and yesterday I could hardly lift those things. I pulled a few frames and they have not been touched them.

What I will do for now is get the bottom box arranged to give room for queen and leave upper boxes full of honey and monitor. As it warms and things start blooming I'll adjust the top boxes then.

Funny thing is I was hoping to use those frames of comb. I figured they would be empty. If they don't empty them and I don't extract them I will have to put in foundation.

[Jen]

Barry- ""I have seen bees throw out crystallized honey.""

Isn't that curious?!? That a bees will throw out crystallized honey, but eat sugar??

[litefoot]

Also, I also saw shiny stuff in the cells in bottom brood box that was not capped. Looked like nectar, but I cant cant image where from.

The "shiny stuff" may very well be honey that your girls are bringing back from another dead-out either in your yard or somewhere nearby. I was baffled by the same thing last year until I discovered a dead colony in a field 1/2 mile away that was being looted by some bees that looked VERY familiar.