What to do with pollen packed frames?

[timjea]

As I performed some hive inspections today, I observed that the queen had eggs larva and brood everywhere she could, however it was focused in the center 4 upper and lower frames of a double deep hive. counting frames going across the hive, frames 3 and 8 had massivve amounts of pollen, leaving only a 2" circle that had larva in it.  Frames 2 and 9 had some pollen but mainly left over honey from fall, and 1 and 10 were heavy with honey, both new nectar and capped honey from last year.  I pulled frames 3 and 8, spread out the four center frames and dropped in two new frames to open the brood nest some.  There is plenty of other pollen avalable on other brood comb, and they are bringing in lots of fresh pollen.

Is there a way to coerce the girls to remove pollen to make more room for egg laying?  its truly beautiful straight comb and is new as of last year so I hate to cut it out and lose it.

[brooksbeefarm]

I would wrap it in plastic, and put it in the freezer to use for splits or nucs, if or when you want more hives. Jack

[Finski]

You have douple brood hive. How many frames are covered with bees?

What is in lower box?

To me it is normal procedure in spring to take off extra winter food to enlarge the brood area.
Capped honey/sugar is not easy to spoil like pollen outside of the hive.

I would out pollen frames in the kower box, then extra capped food away. All brood frames in one bunch ans aside empty combs.

Perhaps lower box has empty combs?

If the bees occupye one and half of the hive, it is time to change the places of boxes.

[bee-nuts]

To much pollen is not something to complain about.  Be glad you have it.  Put some in freezer for a dearth.  Lots of pollen means lots o brood coming most often.  Pollen = brood.  No pollen = no brood.

[timjea]

lots of brood is correct.  This queen is laying like crazy.  I peeked in 3 weeks agoand was a bit worried as the bees were all up top, and covering about 6-7 frames.  Very few bees in lower box.  I did not inspect individual frames as it was still cool and the propolis was very firm.
Now 3 weeks later and thiscolony has grown quite a bit.  First frame by frame inspection.  There was lots of capped brood in the top box, the queen was in the bottom box, saw larva and eggs in the lower box.  Basically what I observed was the queen had no where else to lay in the bottom box as there was too much pollen and honey.  This is  the fist time I have observed this.  I just felt that if I pulled out 2 frames and gave two new frames, it would give the queen more room to lay = larger colony as the flow comes on in a few weeks.

I can save this frame and use with a split, it just has SSSSSOOOOO much pollen in it, it seems it would be beneficial if I could remove SOME of it and open up some cvells for egg laying.

[Finski]

.
Don't worry about "things are too good".

- queen lays like grazy
- it is laying in lower box
- much capped brood.  - soon new bees and new space

I looked your forecast and weather is quite chilly in Tulsa, even near 0C .
It is not time to handle brood franmes.

Let the colony grow one week and look how it has  then new bees.
You may put a third box to lowest and there 2-3 foundations.
Colony may enlarge there during their own time. It seems that you have fast build time now.

.

[Finski]

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One thing more:

When you have now there cold week, bees eate a huge amount of pollen stores and honey.

http://www.weathercentral.com/weather/us/cities/ok_tulsa.html

I have here 0C to -10C and  2 feet snow

[AllenF]

Leave it all in there.   Young bees just eat pollen.    It will be gone soon enough.   They know what they are doing.

[VolunteerK9]

Last year was my first year with bees and through manipulations I wound up doing more harm than good. I would leave it. If/when you decide to do a split, then I would remove a pollen frame to help the split out.

[brooksbeefarm]

timjea, your temp. is alot like in my area (maybe a bit colder) i had to take some pollen frames and give some empty frames to some of my hives last week. In some i just moved the pollen frames to the 2 and 9 position and move empty frames in to give the queen more laying room. It has been a cold winter and spring here,but some how my queens have been laying in cold weather and some had 7 and 8 frames of brood :?. So if yours are like mine, your queen needs more room to lay, just be sure they have good stores to last through April.Fore the past three weeks my bees have been briging in pollen on the warm days,I'll bet yours have too. :cheer: Jack

[FRAMEshift]

I pulled frames 3 and 8, spread out the four center frames and dropped in two new frames to open the brood nest some.  There is plenty of other pollen avalable on other brood comb, and they are bringing in lots of fresh pollen.

i had to take some pollen frames and give some empty frames to some of my hives last week. In some i just moved the pollen frames to the 2 and 9 position

This is one reason I like long hives.  You don't have to worry about removing frames.  You just slide them down and let the bees decide if they need them. 

[timjea]

Well, that settles it then.  Since I have already pulled them out,  I will use them in a split or swarm catch in the coming weeks.  The low temps are starting to roll in today (Saturday) for a damp semi cold week next week.  The girls have been bringing in pollen for a bit over two weeks now.  I use old scrap plywood on the ground under the hives for grass/weed control, and it also lets me see what is falling out of the hive.  They sure drop alot of pollen!

Thanks for all the input -

[donm]

Does anyone have any thoughts on sealing up pollen packed frames and using a little bit of para-moth?  I don't have the freezer space and was concerned about wax moth damage.  Wondering if it would be OK as long as they were aired out for a 2 or 3 days?   

[brooksbeefarm]

It would keep wax mouths out of it,but not so sure about shb. I've not had them yet, but i don't think para mouthballs have much effect on them.I'm sure someone on here knows. Jack

[donm]

Don't really have much of a problem with SHB where I am....thank goodness.  I was mainly wondering the para-moth would contaminate the pollen in the frames so the bees would not use it. 

[FRAMEshift]

Don't really have much of a problem with SHB where I am....thank goodness.  I was mainly wondering the para-moth would contaminate the pollen in the frames so the bees would not use it. 

Freeze the frames to kill the moth larvae and eggs (and the shb as well) and then remove from the freezer and wrap carefully.    If you don't have much space you could freeze them one at a time.  Yes, anything you add to the hive will end up in the bees and the honey... and eventually in you.