My one hive that survived the winter is weak. Currently the queen is laying well but she is only laying in three frames of a medium box. There is an empty deep below the busy bees with no activity in it.
1. Should a weak hive be introduced to small cell at all until it builds up strength?
2. Should I put frames with starter strips of small cell in the deep below? Or should a weak hive be expected to draw comb?
3. Should I remove the deep altogether and put another medium above the current one when the hive has used 8 of the current 10 frames and put frames in that medium with small cell?
Full of questions in Atlanta,
Linda T
1. Yes, I would introduce small cell to any bees, not yet using small cell.
2. You could put frames with starter strips of small cell in the deep below, but I personally use only medium depth boxes, for many reasons, and recommend it to everyone.
3. Yes, you should remove the deep altogether and put another medium above the current one, even now. In other words, remove the deep before the bees start to use it and replace it with another medium, or even an 8 frame medium.
I can hardly remember the last time I used deeps. I do remember the frustration of trying to move around a deep, I started keeping bees when I was 10 years old. I couldn't exchange frames between a deep and a medium, or vise versa, and as a pre-teen I couldn't lift a deep, with bees, if I wanted too. I even kept my bees on the roof at that time. Somehow I did manage to move 10 frame mediums, with lots of difficulty. I switched over to all mediums, and soon thereafter I was vindicated by an article in Gleanings in Bee Culture. Today, I am 50 years old, 5' 11" tall, 220 lbs, and in pretty good shape. But even medium's full of bees or honey seem to be a bit much. I am about to try some 8 frame medium supers, this has been recommended by several long-time beekeepers on this forum. I expect I will soon be spending some time and using my table saw to modify the remainder of my 10 frame supers, making them into 8 frame. My philosophy is that everything about beekeeping, which I love, should be as fun, easy, and free of "stress", as possible.