Super has more brood than honey

[john1]

Hi,
I did split my hive into 2 around 2 months ago. I have queen in both of them.
I did not put my Queen Excluder on any of them.
Recently I noticed the super has more brood than honey (even one of the frames had honey in the past and that also is having brood now).
I am planning to add my Queen Excluder the hive.
Is it because the hives have less bees, the bees are more interested in having more brood than honey?
Thanks,

 

[Erichalfbee]

No it’s because they have moved into the warmest part of the hive; the top.
pop the queen down into the brood box and put the QX back.
OR if you don’t want to do that wait till the brood nest contracts in the autumn and the bees fill the super with honey

 

[BridgeBee]

Put the queen excluder on and place another super on top.
If the new super is foundation take a frame of brood that doesn't contain drones and place it in the center. Replace the brood frame with the frame of foundation.
This should attract the bees through the excluder and start to draw the foundation which they can fill with nectar.
The Queen will be able to lay again in the cells below the excluder when they hatch.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

This should attract the bees through the excluder

Oh dear, unneeded magic tricks again - bees will go up to the new super when they need to, no need to coax them up

 

[BridgeBee]

Hardly magic.
Sometimes they are reluctant to pass through an excluder (especially if they haven't had one on).
Just looking maximise the honey crop rather than have them back fill hatching bees as she lays down.

 

[Boston Bees]

Hardly magic.
Sometimes they are reluctant to pass through an excluder (especially if they haven't had one on).
Just looking maximise the honey crop rather than have them back fill hatching bees as she lays down.

Totally

Using a frame of brood to draw bees up into a super with foundation in is perfectly sensible

 

[Finman]

And hardly problem what is happening there.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Oh dear, unneeded magic tricks again - bees will go up to the new super when they need to, no need to coax them up

Your experience is different to many others Emyr. I've spent days/weeks vainly waiting for bees to draw/fill supers with a QE in place before giving up and taking the QE away for a few days and the bees immediately started drawing the foundation. If it works it works.

 

[Nannysbees]

Your experience is different to many others Emyr. I've spent days/weeks vainly waiting for bees to draw/fill supers with a QE in place before giving up and taking the QE away for a few days and the bees immediately started drawing the foundation. If it works it works.

Same with us, waited weeks wouldn't go up, brood chocca with stores, removed qx, did the trick!!!!!

 

[OH honey]

Hi,
I did split my hive into 2 around 2 months ago. I have queen in both of them.
I did not put my Queen Excluder on any of them.
Recently I noticed the super has more brood than honey (even one of the frames had honey in the past and that also is having brood now).
I am planning to add my Queen Excluder the hive.
Is it because the hives have less bees, the bees are more interested in having more brood than honey?
Thanks,

I had this problem.My solution was to put a super without frames over the brood box to act as a funnel, then shook every brood filled frame back in to the brood box, placed qe between the bb and now empty super (with brood filled frames) and after a week or 2 brood had emerged and gone down and bees were back filling with nectar.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

why not just find the queen and make sure she's in the deep and then insert a QX between the brood box and super as many have already said?

 

[Boston Bees]

Reducing the brood area in June seems like it might be a recipe for swarming

 

[enrico]

Two or three things have been mentioned here
The queen will always lay under the food in the warmest part of the hive.
To start with food will be stored at the sides of the brood
I f you have no QE the queen will move to the top until a flow starts. As the honey increases the brood will move down the hive leaving the food above.
If you put in a QE and there is not enough food they will ignore the super but if you remove the QE the queen will naturally move up hence the reason the foundation then gets drawn.
If you leave the QE on then eventually, as the flow starts the bees will start to store above the QE as there is no space anywhere else.
All of you are right. It is dependant on outside influences and nectar flow. It isn't a question of the bees not doing something because they can't, it is a question of the bees doing something when it is most natural for them when conditions are right.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Two or three things have been mentioned here
The queen will always lay under the food in the warmest part of the hive.
To start with food will be stored at the sides of the brood
I f you have no QE the queen will move to the top until a flow starts. As the honey increases the brood will move down the hive leaving the food above.
If you put in a QE and there is not enough food they will ignore the super but if you remove the QE the queen will naturally move up hence the reason the foundation then gets drawn.
If you leave the QE on then eventually, as the flow starts the bees will start to store above the QE as there is no space anywhere else.
All of you are right. It is dependant on outside influences and nectar flow. It isn't a question of the bees not doing something because they can't, it is a question of the bees doing something when it is most natural for them when conditions are right.

Yes. What I said.