On 5 Aug 99, at 12:20, Lance Almond wrote:

> My strongest colony (I have three) has two brood supers and one honey
> super, but appears to be in danger of overcrowding, I don't know if I
> should risk dividing this late in the year, our central California winters
> are mild, or if I should add a third brood super. My main goal is to have
> strong colonies for spring pollination of my fruit trees, the honey super
> is full but I sometimes remove a frame or two for our personal use of the
> honey. any other ideas would be most appreciated.

Go for it. It's false economy to keep the brood nest too constricted,
under ventilated and over crowded, the primary factors which cause
swarming, then of course your honey crop goes over the fence when
your bees go 'walk about'.
        Adding a third box on top won't cure the problem either. If you do
all it will be is a second honey super. The third box should in
effect be placed in the middle of the two existing brood boxes. The
ideal way, interleaf the new frames with the old, paying attention to
keeping brood frames in the box center. There is always concern with
chilled brood doing this, but I've never had problems in mid summer.
        Only using one honey super is also false economy. Bees need empty
cells to move nectar around, if none are available it takes much
longer to render the excess moisture out.




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