Full of Honey

[waxteeth]

I am new to this so I may not use the correct verbage.  I have two hives and one of the hives in the main brood area, is completly full of honey with very little brood.  I have recently added my honey super which the comb is being drawn out.  Should I be concerned that the queen may not have enough space to lay her eggs.  

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Michael Bush]

This time of year it's less of an issue, but yes, I'd try to keep somewhere for her to lay.  Put an empty frame in the brood nest.

[manowar422]

The original post kinda got me to thinking :?
Here's my thoughts...

                             

                             DEEP Brood Chamber Math:
Empty Deep Frame = about 6,800 cells [both sides fully drawn]

Average Queen = about 1,500 eggs laid per day [changes with season]

Worker Creation = about 21 days [a day or two less with smaller cell sizes]

1,500 X 21 = 31,500 cells filled with eggs.

21 days later, 1,500 adult workers emerge, making those cells available for
queen to lay in again.

You can take out the 1,500 cells per day and conclude about 30,000 cells
would be in constant use for brood rearing.

Assuming the 30,000 cells are used for nothing but brood, we can estimate
a minimum of 5 fully drawn DEEP frames would be needed at all times.

                  Queen’s Brood Pattern Tendencies Affect Formula:
The queen will tend to lay in an oval pattern, using about 1,200 cells in the middle
of each side of the frame. [2,400 cells per frame]

She will also keep her egg laying to the middle 6 or 8 frames [counted from middle]
staying away from the outside frames which are difficult to keep warm in winter.

                                     Worker’s Lifespan:
An adult worker lives about 45 days. [longer over winter hibernation]
Assuming that the original 1,500 eggs laid, would result in 1,500 new workers
produced every 24 hours. In 45 days, a population of  67,500 workers would be
reached before the die-off rate of 1,500 a day would begin. A balance would then
be maintained with an equal number of new bees, versus dead bees until seasons
and/or circumstances changed it.

                                        Conclusions:
Let’s use the 8 frame number to figure it as:
2,400 cells X 8 = 19,200 cells used for brood in each DEEP box.

If we use this estimate, 2 DEEP hive bodies would give your queen about 38,400 cells available,
giving YOU a cushion of about 4 frames.

Keep in mind, that if the beekeeper does not give their bees room
SOME PLACE BESIDES the brood chamber to store nectar during time of flow,
the brood chamber becomes crowded with food stores and
reduces the number of cells available for the rearing of brood.

[Michael Bush]

In theory all that math sounds about right.  In reality it's about right in most hives during most of the season if there is a flow.  Depending on the breed the amount of brood can vary greatly depending on conditions.

Still a lot of the amount of brood there is in the hive is driven by the workers filling cells with nectar to keep the queen from laying in them or opening them up so she will lay in them.  Especially when preparing to swarm or preparing for winter they will clog the brood nest up with nectar.

[Bruce Hanson]

All that math gave me a headacke , just put another super on.

[waxteeth]

What I ended up doing was took out 3 brood frame and replaced them with 3 empty frames with dark foundations.  Moved the top brood box to the bottom and the brood box that was on the bottom that does have the main brood to the top of the two.  Notice that the honey super that I added on Wed was already half drawn out so, I added spacers on that one and added another 10 frame honey super last night.

Everything seems to be back to normal, no bearding and no extra comb on the lid.