Queen laying in supers

[patrickr]

Hi all

On inspection a couple of days ago it became clear that the queen had somehow squeezed through the QX and is merrily laying in both supers. In fact, it's a classic chimney brood - just like her mother! She is prolific. I decided to give her the space she needs and put the QX above the first super, so now on brood and 1/2 with a super (with eggs). It's a bit of a mess of a configuration. Maybe I should just remove the QX altogether and just put one in if I add a third super (this time, I'll choose a different QX). I haven't seen her majesty, but I'm guessing she must be on the smaller size!

 

[Murox]

What is it you want to achieve? What hive type and brood frame size are you using ? how many frames of BIAS in the brood box? and in the 1/2? and in the top most super? What type of queen excluder is it ?

 

[enrico]

They will eventually fill that super with honey and move the brood down. I ended up in a similar situation with most hives this year, by the time I could get in the hives due to cold the queen was in the supers I left on top over winter. They are slowly moving down and filling them with honey and when most of the brood is out I will slip a qe in. If there are two or more supers then you can manipulate the frames to get the brood mainly in one box.

 

[jeff33]

They do sometimes squeeze through but to double check, do you have also eggs in the bottom bb? You may have confined her to the supers when adding the QX or could even have 2 queens. But as Enrico suggests and also Murox, decide how you want to run your hive before you do other manipulations.

 

[enrico]

The most common way to transfer her is to remove a super and put it to one side, then remove the qe and put it on top of the removed super. The queen is on the qe and heads straight down into the super!. The secret, if there are loads of bees on the qe is to turn it upside down onto the supers and then put a crown board on top of that. If the queen is there she will stay happily in the dark. I always check crown boards and qe for queen's when I remove them!

 

[patrickr]

What is it you want to achieve? What hive type and brood frame size are you using ? how many frames of BIAS in the brood box? and in the 1/2? and in the top most super? What type of queen excluder is it ?

Hi

Thanks for the replies. I want the colony to be strong and produce honey surplus. I would have considered going double brood if she continued to expand at the same rate and if she hadn't beaten me to it. There are currently about 8 frames of bees. 5-6 frames of BIAS in the brood box, 4-5 in the 1/2 and 3-4 fr eggs in the top super. I'm on modified nationals, BS frames.

The queen excluder is a wooden framed wire one from maisemore.

 

[patrickr]

They do sometimes squeeze through but to double check, do you have also eggs in the bottom bb? You may have confined her to the supers when adding the QX or could even have 2 queens. But as Enrico suggests and also Murox, decide how you want to run your hive before you do other manipulations.

Have eggs in the bottom box. I removed the nadiered super at the very beginning of this year because it was completely empty. I then added super 1 a couple of weeks later with a QX so she must have been in the brood box then and climbed up.

 

[drex]

You can consolidate the shallow frames with brood and eggs into one box then. Depending on where you put the queen and QX you can then run brood and half ( which I hate) or carry on with your plans for double brood as the season is still young.

 

[Murox]

As Drex & others, also just check the excluder gaps (sometimes they get bent or even made wrongly sized) should be around 4.22mm and 4.38mm . (Queen Excluder Types Used In Bee Hives describes various types.)

 

[patrickr]

You can consolidate the shallow frames with brood and eggs into one box then. Depending on where you put the queen and QX you can then run brood and half ( which I hate) or carry on with your plans for double brood as the season is still young.

Hi. Thanks for that. Makes sense. If I want to go double brood later, should I put the new brood box under existing brood box - bearing in mind that I will have majority foundation. Or should I distribute brood frames in both boxes eg. 4 frames in bottom BB, 4 in top BB if there were, say, 8 frames of brood?

 

[Nige.Coll]

If the brood in the supers is drone the workers put it there.

 

[patrickr]

If the brood in the supers is drone the workers put it there.

That's an interesting thought. Thank you!

 

[Finman]

Hi. Thanks for that. Makes sense. If I want to go double brood later, should I put the new brood box under existing brood box - bearing in mind that I will have majority foundation. Or should I distribute brood frames in both boxes eg. 4 frames in bottom BB, 4 in top BB if there were, say, 8 frames of brood?

Let the queen make brood into supers. When the super brood expandd, nothing goes wrong. You get bees. Do not split brood area with boxes.

When the hive starts to get honey, it starts to fill from top to down. Some day supers will be filled with capped honey.