hello,

I live in Central Massachusetts.  I opened my hives
the past weekend to check on their status.  All
three were doing quite well, no evidence of mites,
plenty of honey stores remaining.

I was checking to see if I need to reverse the hive
bodies (2 deeps on each).  I notices lots of larvae,
both capped and otherwise.  There was an enormous
amount of brace comb between the supers that was
filled with brood (what a mess to scrape).  I got the
sense (although I am a novice) that the hive was
appearing congested.  I did not reverse, since the
bottom supers contained plenty of brood, too, so
the queens were laying throughout the two bodies
and there was plenty of honey in the top supers.

My question: is it wise/OK/advisable to add a
honey super now?  The honey flow here doesn't
begin for another 2-3 weeks, but the population
seemed high.  Will adding another super relieve
the congestion?

Is it OK to use a queen excluder to keep the queen
from moving up into the empty comb and begin laying
there? I have had this problem in previous years.  Will
the congestion be alleviated by a honey super on top
of an excluder?  What is standard protocol under these
conditions?

Thanks,

Marc