I think that I'm figuring out what I've done wrong BUT I've not yet figured out how to makes things right. :roll:
In my area the major honey flow comes from Purple Loosetrife and goldenrod late in the season so I hadn't been checking my two hives that often.
We've had a great great Summer for flowers and I think that gave me an unanticipated honey flow. The two hives were two deeps high in June (usually enough) and I found them to be chock full O' honey, little room for brood. So I put another deep on each hive to give the queen more room to lay.
I didn't want to put on honey supers thinking that if I
a) used a queen excluder she would still feel cramped and would encourage swarming.
b) not use a queen excluder and she would scamper all the way up and start laying brood in the open, drawn cells that I had just provided.
Now what I have is two hives filled with 3 deeps each brood AND honey, but interstpersed in a very odd pattern (frames with one side capped honey, other side brood/pollen/honey, next fram all honey, next frame both sides brood/pollen/honey).
Both hives seem othewise healthy, but I don't want to go into Fall/Winter with three deeps each. I tried that last year with a very healthy hive and it didn't do too well over Winter. I'm assuming it had just too much to try to keep warm in those three deeps.
:?: Where should I go from here? Is there a proper way to get rid of that third deep as the end of the season draws near? If I put on honey supers would the girls start moving honey or nectar from the deeps to up top?
Both hives seem to be doing so well, I'm hoping that I can correct my error before we go into Fall.