in the thread : how much space do bees need during the winter: mention was made of putting a super on the brood box with drawn out frames for extra storage space.
What do we put between the boxes ,nothing , or crown board with another crown board on top of the super, or queen excluder with crown board on top of super to avoid having to find the queen in the spring??
Two different aspects there.
Last one first. It would indeed be going multi-brood, giving the possibility of the queen being in either box. *BUT* that is the whole idea - to allow the cluster (including the queen) to range over
all the stores. To restrict the queen in any way implies possibly separating her from the cluster, with potentially fatal consequences.
Putting a shallow box of drawn comb
on (above or "super") the existing brood box at this point in the season would be rather foolish. Heat rises. No point going into winter with a largely empty topspace taking the warmth from the bees. You might as well raise the crownboard on matchsticks at the same time.
*IF* you really, really, really have come to the belated conclusion that your bees would benefit even at this late stage from additional storage space, it would be much safer (thus IMHO more sensible) to put the additional shallow box
under the brood - so "nadir", not super. Long before your first spring inspection it will be empty. So, it should be quite easy to make sure that the queen isn't in it, when you remove that box at that 'first full inspection'.
