Odd behaviour- honey in brood

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drex

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Like a lot have posted recently, my bees are tending to fill the brood boxes with nectar/honey. A couple of weeks ago, I removed honey bound frames from the brood boxes and replaced with foundation. Since the colonies are good and strong, I placed this in between frames of brood. Despite the queen continuing to lay well, with plenty of space in the supers, on inspection today, these new frames have been drawn out and filled with nectar, hence really splitting up the brood nest.
 
Happened here too. Some of the brood frames filled with very dark honey unless it is honey dew.
 
Mine do exactly that. I am on 14x12. they refuse to take it up in the supers. I am considering taking out the QE to see if that makes a difference... I would not worry about nectar though. it is quite normal for them to dump that in the most convenient/occupied space and move it afterwards
 
Hah. Same issue here. I have 14x12. I gave them a deep super. They didn't want to draw and fill it so removed queen excluder and swapped them over so I can see a lot of activity below which I assume is the queen laying below leaving mostly filled honey bound brood box above for honey. They managed to fill the deep and draw it out in two weeks when I was gone on holiday so might have to add another deep at this rate. The boxes are dam heavy though. Nectar source is from privet hedge
 
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Nectar/honey in brood combs

18 June old marked Queen seen. 3 frames brood els, + 4 full frames stores, + 4 frames partially filled with nectar/honey.

28 June no sign of old Q but found big new unmarked Q. Only 2 frames with small amount of els + all other frames jam packed with liquid, mostly unsealed, removed 4 filled frames and replaced with drawn comb.
OK for now, unlikely to swarm, (time of year/new Q)

Inspection 16 July. Did not see the Queen, but
8 frames mostly wall to wall sealed brood with small amount of el on 2 frames AND eleven open/broken down Queen cells. Too soon for a new product of these Q cells to be laying. Crazy or what??
Have added a super of drawn comb as extra laying space, so now brood and half.
Not saying I never miss Q cells, but eleven?? All happened in 18 days.

Honey in brood combs could be used soon as food instead of going up into the supers with an early dearth approaching following these drought conditions, so maybe a disappointing final honey crop tally? Also could feeding early be on the cards when the brood combs are emptied?
 
I built 60 fresh brood frames last week to change out capped or nectar bound brood frames for space for laying as laying was getting soooo reduced run out needed more..... just a serious annoyance if im being honest im going to stick all the frames I removed and fill a few brood boxes up and use as super sontop of excluder on some colonies to see if they will cap them I might need to buy a cheap extractor to remove honey few frames at a time as my current one wont extract commercial deep frames.
 
I extracted a brood box full full of uncapped honey a few days ago, i was going to bin it as it needed doing to free up some space.. however i checked it with the refractometer and it was reading 16.5 % even uncapped and it is still runny .

Bin it? Can't you give it it back to them in a feeder above a super so they store it there?
 
Bin it? Can't you give it it back to them in a feeder above a super so they store it there?
Whatever for!!! This is this years honey they are storing in brood frames many of them freshly drawn.
 
with an early dearth approaching following these drought conditions

I reckon this mega honey flow will surely come to a juddering halt sometime in September.

...and then start again in October.
 
Yes I know that, its not going to be last years'!! That way they can store it in the super, cap it and be extracted at a later date when ready.... That way you have space in the BB and no waste.
QUOTE=Beefriendly;637104]Whatever for!!! This is this years honey they are storing in brood frames many of them freshly drawn.[/QUOTE]
 
I have some 14x12 frames that are full of nectar but in old dark brood frames... is it best to spin out and feed back so they can recycle it into clean supers or let them cap it and spin out and jar it ?
 
Yes I know that, its not going to be last years'!! That way they can store it in the super, cap it and be extracted at a later date when ready.... That way you have space in the BB and no waste.
QUOTE=Beefriendly;637104]Whatever for!!! This is this years honey they are storing in brood frames many of them freshly drawn.
[/QUOTE]

Jeff may I politely suggest you have gone mad! If you have already extracted this years honey from the brood frames that are mainly capped and perfectly legal and tastes damn good.....why on gods earth would you then feed it back to the bees so they could stick it in the supers and cap it again so you could go and extract it again.
Or have you got a cunning plan? Vodka advertising goes for triple distilled...Do you think twice capped honey would get double the price :)
 
On reflection twice capped honey....might work.
 
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Whatever for!!! This is this years honey they are storing in brood frames many of them freshly drawn.


If it was like water it would have been binned as i do not have the time or machinery to do much else with it and i need empty brood frames for more important matters.. how ever it was worth keeping.. ;)
 
I’ve been making space for queen to lay but it looks like there may well be a lot of late swarming as hives not attended to get honey bound.
S
 
Like a lot have posted recently, my bees are tending to fill the brood boxes with nectar/honey. A couple of weeks ago, I removed honey bound frames from the brood boxes and replaced with foundation. Since the colonies are good and strong, I placed this in between frames of brood. Despite the queen continuing to lay well, with plenty of space in the supers, on inspection today, these new frames have been drawn out and filled with nectar, hence really splitting up the brood nest.

So they do when it is a good flow. Drawing combs hinders swarming.

Another style is to fill brood combs as soon as brood emerges. In this case the colony needs foundation box to be drawn.
 
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I’ve been making space for queen to lay but it looks like there may well be a lot of late swarming as hives not attended to get honey bound.
S

They get honey bound almost every year on the heather, most with no brood at all, but they don't swarm, well not here they don't anyway.
 

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