> 
> East San Fran bay area - still learning how to work bees in No. CA.


> One colony in early to mid March was headed full tilt for swarming and completely packed both deeps with pollen and honey and 8 or so queen cells.  Before they could pull it off I removed outside honey frames, split them and added a second deep to both with a few drawn comb in each but mostly foundation.  Through April the old queen died and the queen-less split reproduced a new queen.  During April the original split dwindled and in mid April I combined them and took out the unused foundation and left mostly drawn comb thinking that the bees would move resources around to give the new queen room to lay.  She found and used what empty cells she could but room was scarce.  Apparently my assumption that they would move resources was not correct (da - they had little room to move resources around) and in early May I took out more packed frames and a couple outside honey frames and reinstalled the now extracted honey frames that I took out in mid March.  It has been one week now and I need to go back in and see if the queen is laying in these empty frames.  There is not a lot of traffic in or out of the hive as they apparently have plenty of stores for what the need is.  There has been a consistent nectar flow on this hole time.  I guess it pays to have more empty drawn comb on hand to provide the room they need in this situation.



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