Do I need to remove empty brood frames as we head into Autumn?

[HelenHP16]

Hello, I have had my colony for 6 weeks now - I have brood on 4 frames and stores on another 2 but they don't seem inclined to draw out the emptry frames that are in there. They have made a start on one but no stores in it yet. As we head into autumn should I restrict the space they have or is it OK to leave the empty frames. I have been giving them 1:1 syrup over the past few weeks.

Thanks

 

[Polyanwood]

I recommend that you give your bees enough room, but not too much room, so that they don't have to waste energy warming and conditioning air they do not need to. At the moment they have too much room. It is important now to enable them to build up as fast as possible to reduce their space and even more so in the Winter. They will build up quicker if you reduce their space using a dummy board.

 

[Polyanwood]

Forgot to say - it doesn't matter if you leave the frames in or not at the moment - you just need to deny bees access to them. If the colony don't build up much more before Winter, I would be minded to put them in a nuc or to fill up the space they are not using with Kingspan, having fisrt removed the unused frames.

 

[itma]

Wooden National? You don't say or provide the info in your profile ...

They need to be warm to draw comb.
So wrap them up as warm as possible - reduce the entrance, put insulation (a super-ful?) under the roof, maybe even fit the inspection board.

Put one frame of foundation on each side of the brood frames - at least one is going to be between brood and stores. That is where they will draw it fastest.
// So prime position for your part-drawn frame for the next week ...

I'd suggest removing all the other frames of foundation, putting a dummy board as the last frame and filling the space beyond it with some insulating material - a binbag full of polystyrene chippings at a pinch.
/ there should be less need to worry about insulation with a polyhive /

There should be plenty forage still. So feeding shouldn't be needed. Especially with a couple of frames of stores and not many bees.

It does sound as though it was either a distinctly small colony to begin with, or it is building up rather worryingly slowly ...