hive question

[Wynoochee_newbee_guy]

ok my two deeps last week were solid brood all frames drawn out, so I go a head and put on a supper with a queen excluder and open my hove for inspection and nothing in my supper? my deeps are brood bound and no honey no pollen what the heck is going on? no bees in the supper as well.

[Hethen57]

If the super you put on was just foundation, the queen excluder may be hindering your progress.  You have alot more luck getting them to go up if the frames are drawn out.  Otherwise, you may need to remove the excluder and see if you can get them to start drawing the foundation. 

[jason58104]

queen excluders in my opion are the worst thing ever.  I would pull it off!

[kathyp]

yup.  take it off.  if your brood boxes are that full, you may need to add another to accommodate the bees that are coming along.  10 frame deeps?  how many full of brood?  if they are not putting stores around the brood, how will they make it through winter?

[Wynoochee_newbee_guy]

I have two deeps 20 frams total all have brood larva and eggs very little stores of food.

[kathyp]

you need another brood box before  you add a honey super.  you can put both on, but no excluder until they are working the honey super.  you may want to skip the excluder all together.  do  it now, or they will swarm.

addition:  when you add the next box, take some of the frames of brood from below and put in the new box.  take them from the center and replace with the new frames of foundation/drawn comb/starter strips.  most of the time, you would not want to break up the brood nest, but since yours is all brood, you have no choice.  put the frames that you pull into the new box, in the center.  with any luck, the queen will take advantage of the empty space in the middle and work her way up.

you may also choose to put the new box under, but that's a lot of work when the hive gets that big.