Have I screwed up to bad?

[RangerBrad]

Hey fellas, I installed a super of drawn wax on March 13th. Then today I installed 2 more supers of drawn wax, the upper one having a 1/2" opening the full length of the front of the hive as a upper entrance. While putting these 2 on I noticed the first super had no honey in it they were just drawing out the comb that had been scraped of during the extracting process last year. The reason for the upper hive entrance was hoping to get better honey production as I use a queen excluder because last year the queen got into the supers and laid. From now on I'm using excluders. Will the upper hive entrance counteract the excluder on honey production? How will having 3 supers on with no honey in them effect the harvest? I was also thinking having so much room above them would stifle the urge to swarm. Yals thoughts are appreciated. Thank's, Brad

P.S. Should I also block the lower hive entrance to force them to use the upper? I am using a screened bottom board so they would still have good ventilation. Brad

[Pond Creek Farm]

With an excluder on, how will supers above it affect swarming.  The queen still will be limited in room to lay and therefore if the brood area is congested, it still will be irrespective of how many supers are above a queen excluder.  If you block the bottom entrance and put a queen excluder between the brood area and the top entrance, how will the drones exit the hive?

[RangerBrad]

Thank's for the response. Good thought about the drones Took me a little while to think of that my self. Even though the excluder is in place there should still be percieved space above. With or without an excluder you would still want the queen to confine laying to the brood hives would'nt you? Thank's, Brad

[T Beek]

You need to decide what your going to do and why.  Make more bees?  Make more honey?  Preventing swarms?  There are hive manipulations for all three, but you must make some choices.

Blocking lower entrance won't "force" them to go up, it just lessons bees options.

thomas

[bee-nuts]

Im sending You a private message.  Make sure you take a look.

[Pond Creek Farm]

Thank's for the response. Good thought about the drones Took me a little while to think of that my self. Even though the excluder is in place there should still be percieved space above. With or without an excluder you would still want the queen to confine laying to the brood hives would'nt you? Thank's, Brad

I am unsure if the perceived space will translate into swarm prevention.  There are higher minds than mine here who will have to answer that one for us.  I am interested in the answer.  As for excluders,  I do not use them.  If I have some brood up into a super, I just combine it all and put it on a hive.  BY the end of the season, it is gone and I bring in the box. 

[RangerBrad]

Well fellas, My thought process is, excluder to prevent queen from laying in supers, all supers on instead of one at a time for large percieved space above to prevent swarming and upper hive entrance directly into supers to counteract workers reluctancts to pass through queen excluder thus producing  more honey. That is my reasoning. Brad

[RangerBrad]

Well checked on the bees just a few minutes ago and didn't open the hive but looked through the upper hive entrance and can see alot of bees working the supers and put my ear to the lower 2 hives and can hear alot of bees working. We'll see what happens but, they are up in the supers working them and hopefully they will not swarm and produce alot of honey. This is very scarry for me as I only have 2 hives and the other died out during the winter due to the queen dying. Wish me luck Brad

[T Beek]

Good luck.

thomas