My bees just tried to kill me

[Bakersdozen]

That said -- are 5 frames (2 deep, 3 medium) sufficient for her purposes?  6 if they finish drawing the one outside frame?  If not, what should I do about it?  There is one deep frame that has a good number of empty cells (no nectar or pollen) that I could move next to the brood nest if necessary.  Otherwise, maybe I could shuffle the top around a bit to give her some room, then flip the top and bottom brood boxes.  Any thoughts?

Led- I don't understand what you asking.  "are 5 frames (2 deep, 3 medium) sufficient for her purposes?
Other than surviving, what is your goal for this colony?  Do you hope to split or collect honey? 
If you are wanting to do both, a split and still get honey, the number of frames of brood you will leave will depend upon how close you are to a nectar flow.  Around here, we leave the equivalent of 5 frames of brood if we are doing this after Tax Day.  If you are doing a split the early part of April, you can get by with leaving the equivalent of 3 frames of brood.  You are ahead of us, but I don't know how many weeks. 

I think you are doing great.  You got this misfit colony through the winter and she's laying. Congrats on your first year. 

[iddee]

Led, the brood area is flanked by a frame of pollen on each side. She has to have empty cells to lay in between the pollen frames. She will not cross a pollen frame to get to empty cells. Number of frames vary with many things, so you can't use that as a measurement. If she fills all empty frames between pollen frames, she will either quit laying or swarm.

[Jen]

So Iddee, with my split, I have three frames of brood, a frame of pollen on one side, and a frame of honey on the other side, and I added an empty frame for the bees to keep busy. There are eggs on one of the brood frames. I intended that because it took me so long to find the queen, I thought that the bees might need to make a new queen. Is this a sensible combination?

[iddee]

For now, yes. The honey frame should be emptied fast enough for her to use, then the pollen frame will a little later, hopefully. Just watch them and be sure they empty enough for her to keep laying without separating the brood nest.

[Jen]

Got It! Thanks 

[tbonekel]

She will not cross a pollen frame to get to empty cells.

I don't want to hijack the original thread, but what would be considered a pollen frame? I have some frames that are about half pollen and half open cells. I have seen eggs in these cells with pollen right next door. At what point will the queen not cross. You have mentioned this in other threads and while looking in my hives, I will run across a frame that has a lot of pollen and it makes me question whether she would cross or not.

[Jen]

Good question tbone  just learning this myself as well. What I'm trying to remind myself to do is when I'm in the hive, to make sure that the pollen is on the sides of the frames, brood up to the top of the frame or working that way, and all brood frames in the middle. That way she can walk straight up.
 
But sometimes it isn't easy because like you I have frames and are a combination of everything 

[iddee]

Just imagine the pollen as a wall. She will not lay on both sides of that wall. If the pollen goes across only half the frame, and the other half is empty cells, she will use those and go on to the next frame. That will keep her nest constant, with no breaks.

[Jen]

And she will not cross nectar and capped honey, right?

Sorry led, I'm back on topic now 

[ledifni]

Well, it looked to me like she had filled most of the space she had available.  There is pollen on only *one* side of the brood nest, though, since it's all the way on the right side of the hive.  Sounds like I should try to open up some more space -- and should I also try to open up pollen space on the far side of the brood nest?  I worry about messing with their hive organization too much, since I feel like they know a lot more about it than I do lol...but if you guys advise it, I will do it.

As far as my objectives beyond survival -- my objective this year is to get them as strong as possible by fall, so they can come out of winter with a good work force.  The following year I'd like to harvest honey, yes.

[iddee]

Just keep space in the brood nest. They will do the rest. They can move honey, but seldom move pollen until they use it.

[ledifni]

Just keep space in the brood nest. They will do the rest. They can move honey, but seldom move pollen until they use it.

Well, that makes things simple.  There are several nectar-filled frames I can use to expand the brood nest.  Thanks Iddee