hive congestion ?

[pdmattox]

I have 8 frame, 1 deep and 1 med. (1.5 story) colonies that are geting congested.  What should i do to give them more space?  Add another med. or deep to the top or to the bottom of the hive?

[tom]

Hello

   What i am seeing is that you are running a eight frame hive or a ten frame one if you are running a eight frame hive i would go ahead and give them more room or you will have a swarm coming. If the hive if ull add a super that way they will know they have more room keep and check on them because they might be getting in the swarming mode. Just my opinion. :lol:

Tom

[Finsky]

I suppose that your queen want to lay eggs more than one deep. Give one deep more.

Give second deep between medium and deep

* Take from lower deep honey frames and lift them  up
* Lift them too which have more than half capped honey
* Put empty combs/foundations on both side of brood frames.
* Put pollen frames on boath sides of second deep of leave then next to brood frames in lower deep.

If you have brood in medium frames, don't care. They fill combs with honey when bees emerge.

Put full brood frames in the middle and honey frames on sides of brood.
Otherwise bees start to rearrange they stores.

Follow if hive needs second medium after 2 weeks or sooner. Follow measure of free combs, nectar and brood.

Good queen lays one deep full of brood during one week and pollen and nectar are in side frames.
.

[Brian D. Bray]

Anytime a hive starts to get congested it is time to super.  congestion is the same thing as overcrowding so making room in a timely fashion can head off a swarm mode.  It is an accepted practice to move the top super up and putting the new super in between.  A deep sandwiched between the existing deep and the medium will give you a 2 deep broodbox--a good thing for wintering and spring buildup.
If you move frames from the bottom box up into the the 2nd box move up the 2 frames from each side of the box and replace them with the foundation frames from the super.  If there is brood on any of the frames keep the brood frames together and it may be best to leave the frames together as a group if there is brood present.

[pdmattox]

This is the way they are set up and i pulled the excluders off and they moved up into the supers.  So what i understand is i can put another deep in between the deep and the med super and mix some of the frames from the bottom deep and the middle deep that i put on?

[TwT]

I would, in the south a 10 frame deep and a 10 frame medium might be enough but I have 2 deeps and a deep and a medium for my hives in north Georgia and on a few hives it just isn't enough room,,,,, but that's just me and I suppose you are the same way....but with so many hives I would have figured you would know this by now........

[pdmattox]

Will they run out of space again,even with say 2 deeps and med on them?

[Apis629]

If you get a good flow, they can, and probably will fill a few supers.  Just add them as they need them.

[pdmattox]

Brood space of 2 deeps and 1 med should be enough though and the honey supers are extra room for the honey, right?

[Brian D. Bray]

To give ample space for brood rearing I use 4 mediums as my basic brood box and then use a slatted rack in place of an excluders.  
Some queens will confine themselves to 1 deep brood box and good one will use 2 deeps.  4 mediums is more than 2 deeps into comb area.

It doesn't matter how many frames your hive has, whether you're using a 2 or 5 frame nuc or 8, 10, or 12 frame hive.  The management is the same the number of frames doesn't count the method does.

[Finsky]

First of all, bees need the loose space even if you get no honey. If bees fill the "loose space" its is fine.

When bees get one capped box honey they need 2 boxes more to rippen nectar and evaporate water off. If they have too thick layer of nectar in combs evaporation is slower.

If bees have not enough evaporation surface they put nectar in brood combs and that encourage swarming.