I got this in an email from a member today. I think it is a good question and needs to be discussed here. What is your opinion???
>>>I added my second hive body to one of my hive about a week ago. When I opened up things today the bees had 9.5 of the frames drawn out and a good bit of uncapped honey on just about every frame. There were eggs on a lot of the frames but nothing really capped. My question is, when are the frames considered full? When they have been drawn out or after they have capped brood and such. They really drew out all the frames really fast, I guess there are a lot more of them now…J<<<
When to add boxes
I recall the general guideline is when 7 of 10 frames are drawn add the next hive body.
>There were eggs on a lot of the frames.....
I would also move frames up to the next hive body and replace them with undrawn frames trying to keep the brood nest expanding and avoid a possible swarm potential later. How many frames to move up may depend on how well the bees are covering the frames.
Is this a deep or medium hive body, if its a deep sounds like a super queen and some hard working bees.
Just my opinion.
>There were eggs on a lot of the frames.....
I would also move frames up to the next hive body and replace them with undrawn frames trying to keep the brood nest expanding and avoid a possible swarm potential later. How many frames to move up may depend on how well the bees are covering the frames.
Is this a deep or medium hive body, if its a deep sounds like a super queen and some hard working bees.
Just my opinion.
the first and second hive bodies are deeps. i have since then added a honey supper. we have quite a few tulip poplars in the neighborhood which from what i understand will keep them busy. once all the hive body frames are full is there anything that i need to do with them? move them around? or is it just best to leave them alone?