I think the bottom deep on the big hive is all drawn comb, all 10 frames. It has been months since I got to it. I removed and extracted honey from the top 2 boxes on this hive in late June, and put the drawn comb back on. I have 2 months until first frost. I can buy a summer queen now (couldn't in late June or July) so if I find there is not a queen in the cutout hive, I can buy a mated if slightly hot queen.
I don't consider anything "all my stores" until it is at least late September. I prefer NOT to build the hives up too much just now or they tend to swarm in mid october and a mid or late october swarm will cost me the hive. I also work long days at that time so if I lose a swarm then I will not be at home to catch it.
The smaller hive is putting up honey on the outer frames of the medium box which I put on the bottom, the queen had been laying in the center of that box, nice solid brood with honey in the outer corners. The reason the smaller hive had 5 drawn frames on the bottom is those frames came out of the freezer about the time I took down a hive that had lost most of its bees in a swarm, leaving a virgin queen. I took the hive down, moved the surplus bees in a medium super to the top of the big (and only) remaining hive, and went out the door to run my business, it was June, I may or may not have posted this, the swarm happened while I was in Nevada I think. A week later a clump of bees was still sitting next to the big hive. After taking away whatever they were hiding UNDER I found a queen. A mated queen. So I had the 5 frames of food that I"d removed from the freezer when I shut it down for summer, and I put them in a deep, and I put this half cup or cup of bees with the queen in the deep on those frames. And I took the medium box of food and brood off the big hive, with newspaper from the combine still half way attached, and I stuck it on the deep with 5 frames a cup of bees and a queen. And I put a lid on it, stuck a jar of food on top, reduced the entrance to 2 bees width (I use screened bottom boards for ventiliation) and I went off to work and spent the next month supporting my aunt and cousins by phone as they tried to untangle my uncle's hospital situation. Given its humble beginnings, and that my purchased queen took off and this young queen is her newly mated daughter, the small hive has done rather well.
I may need to clarify: I am a hobbyist beekeeper. I got 30 lbs of honey at the end of June, I am not selling any, I sold one hive that I started with a queen I bought last summer, built the hive up over the winter and this spring, sold it early in June of this year. I will never be more than a hobbyist beekeeper unless I move. And I am ok with that. I can't raise queens, insufficient DNA mix and what there is is a bit hot. I am ok with that.
Courtesy of having to build hives up at this time of year before I know the feed feed feed mantra, and I know bees will draw out comb if they have a good waxworker population of bees the right age, and feed going into the box.
I just did not want to blindly feed, so I've held it down to subsistence for the last couple of months until I had time to check the hives. When I was last in the big hive, that I stole the medium super from, they had 2/3 refilled the deep box which is fully drawn out after I extracted it. So they did not starve while I was not feeding. Best news is no drone brood at all. The only box I didn't get into was the bottom box on the double deep hive, she might have some drone brood and queen cells hidden down there. But for today, at 98 degrees, I had enough to do and she is my best queen. so I opted not to risk her checking. I will get to it.
If I combined hives at this time of year and overcrowded the bees I suspect I would set myself up for a late season swarm. If I reduce real estate too far, particularly on the double deep, she is prolific enough I am worried about a swarm. I would prefer not to divide the hive this close to winter with minimal flow but I really don't want to lose half of it and have the other half left queenless. I've had late season swarms 9/26 to 10/26 both years that I had bees that late in the year. Something about our seasons
