Stan Gore: how long have you had this queen?
Donald Ross: Second year
Stan Gore: what did she do last year?
Donald Ross: Worked the 4 left frames
Stan Gore: Donald Ross interesting pattern. Usually the brood is in the middle of box. I dont like moving brood but I would gently slide existing brood over to center and put empty frames on each side of it. See what happens. Did you have more than a single deep last year??
Donald Ross: Stan Gore ok so I will move the three frames over one thus week then another frame the following week. Just the one deep last year received the bees middle may fiar year
Stan Gore: Donald Ross sounds like a plan. If your queen is not producing over 3 frames of brood in a year…might be time for a new queen.- i dont mess around with mediocre producers. Keepem strong! good luck
David Bauer: mine last year did the same, i put some comb from extracted honey every other frame and left the wax foundation every other and they filled it out in 3 weeks except the far side. they left those blank all the way up. just the side of the foundation against the wood they left untouched on all the frames in brood boxes. they filled it out on the honey supers though…..bees are weird.
Steven Bigger: Are the other 4-5 frames empty foundation, empty comb or full of nectar/honey?
Steven Bigger: Could be blocked due to can’t move up (one box) and won’t move over due to honey frames.
Donald Ross: The frames just have honey are around the edge and empty they are old frames they are black.
Donald Ross: Thank you for the feedback I will also look to see if they’re all honey I may have overlooked that I always videotape whenever I go into the hive so I can review to see what’s changed from the previous visits but I may have overlooked it and assumed it was brood and it may be honey bound that’s a very good point thank you
James Slemp: If some of the other frames are empty then Iwould move the three frames she worked on to the ctr of the hive putting emptys on both sides of the brood nest for them to work on .
Erin R. Myers: Can also checker board the brood. I would add a box move honey frames to top and checkerboard them with empty frames and then move brood to center and maybe add empties either every other frame or two brood in center empty frame brood empty frame on each side of the two. So bottom would be empty frame brood empty frame two brood, empty frame, brood empty frame. The bees will draw out the comb fast so the brood isn’t split up for long.