4th inspection confusion

[Biddybean]

I didn't think it was gonna be a good day to inspect since it rained quite a bit last night, but it was sunny and 70 degrees. We added a super about a month ago, a bit too soon imo since the hive had only drawn comb on 5 of 10 frames in our langstroth deep. We inspected 2weeks later and saw eggs and brood in both boxes and an overall good pattern.

Today we inspected and found that they have drawn comb in every frame of the super which was filled with young bees and capped and uncapped brood. They were calm and so thick that it was hard to get the frames out, so we headed to the brood box underneath. There we found the 4 frames at the end still had no drawn comb, there were far less bees, brood, and the bees were cranky and stung my husband. On one of the frames we saw a "insurance" cup and what seemed like either drone caps or 2 swarm cells. My husband took a frame from the middle and moved it towards the end to foster more comb building.

The queen is there and def in the top part of the box. We just don't know what to do from here. Should we move the top super to the bottom or just leave it for now since the hive seems strong? We'll be checking again next weekend with hopefully better weather and more confidence.

[AllenF]

You can move it or leave it be.   Bees always store honey over brood so as honey comes in, brood moves down.   

[Biddybean]

Thanks AllenF, I think we'll leave it until we inspect again next weekend. We're new to this so every inspection causes a bit of a tweak for us. The cup was unsettling but from further research it's not very developed. It amazes me how bee keeping is more about experience in the learning process. I sure am glad to have your experience to tap into when we need it. I hope to do the same in the future.

[Dimmsdale]

Queen cups used to unnerve me, but they are very common.  They will tear them down and build new ones all season.  You will know it if they are building queen cells.  Good luck and keep learning!

[Greg]

I would consider moving 4 frames from the top down to completely fill out the brood chamber and have all the empties up top.  That would give them 1 location for them to go to draw out the new frames and expand.

[buzzbee]

She has a medium on top of the deep I think.

[Biddybean]

Thanks so much for the input. We have two deeps, I'd like to move to mediums because they're very heavy.

We're going to move around the hive and see if they like it better. The hive is going strong so far but we need a honey super and queen excluder to help them along for the winter. I know it's late in the season, but we're not banking on honey yet and feeding them will be easy till next spring. I'll let you know how the move goes.

[iddee]

Leave the excluder off until the super is drawn and you want the honey for yourself. "Next year?"