Hello Michelle, Dan has raised some good points and i would like to comment and add to the points. Bob dan hendricks wrote: I have some suggestions but may I start at the beginning? The dominant feature of an OH is that it has one queen for 2 frames instead of one queen for 10 or 20, thus it has "too much queen". This will result in overpopulation and swarming. The Draper hive has three full size frames which is a big advantage over all others which are mostly a deep and a 6 5/8. Three deep frames gives you extra swarm protection. consider a ob like you would a small nuc. With the Draper hive you need to keep both top frames full of honey if possible. With only one frame of brood i doubt you will have a swarming problem. Top two full frames of honey and bottom frame brood is the way all i have seen are set up. If you can get a deep super or two of honey you can double wrap with trash bags and store in a freezer. Take a couple frames out and let defrost at room temp. Pull middle frame or middle and top if the nest is expanding too fast and replace with full frames of sealed honey. You should be back to the original plan with two sealed honey above and a nice frame of brood,queen and bees to cover. Give the two frames you removed to your other hive outside. Field bees can be a problem as they tend to run on the glass making the glass apear dirty so the bottom brood frame may need to be changed. Consult your mentor as a you may need help restoring the ob hive. You can allways feed through top hole with a bear but i don't recommend feeding as bees tend to mess up glass but i have fed before. Also without a huge amount of pollen comming in brood rearing is somewhat restricted. Remember all a ob hive needs to show is a queen, brood (eggs and larva at times),usually at least a few drones and sealed honey(pollen you can point out if in the hive but not absolutely necessary to have a good OB hive). You need to be alert to a queens not laying. OB hives can get smaller. What we tried which didn't work was putting two mt drawn comb or foundation above. The young queen will quickly lay all over all three frames . Many times she will lay a egg on foundation and expect her throng to draw the cell. What was tried that will work is to start with three full frames of sealed honey and install the Kelley *Ob hive package with queen* and let nature take its course. The bees eat out a perfect pattern and the queen lays in the mt cells. Problem here is they pick the nest location and can be the top frame. With the Draper OB hive frames come out the front(great feature) so all you need to do is carefully remove frame and place in bottom position. Bees allways want to move upward. I don't want to make setting up the hive seem too hard because it really isn't. Print out these emails for reference. Email me and i will try to help if problems arise. Dan wrote: an OH must be operated in conjunction with a full sized hive so that frames of brood can be moved out of the OH and replaced with empty ones. Another hive is needed as Dan says. I would follow however the plan above if useing the Draper hive. Using the full frames of honey to slow hive growth. One thing i have learned about bees is when all combs are full of honey they stop . You want the queen to be constantly looking for a place to lay but do not provide unlimited laying area in the OB hive. Dan Wrote: What this leads to is that the OH needs to have two frames of the same size and the same size as the full size hive. I prefer deeps. I agree completely on this point. In my opinion Ob hives with a frame and a 6 5/8 frame are poor choices for year around ob hives. Best left for weekend shows and trips to the schools. Sincerely, Bob Harrison P.S. thanks Michelle for the direct email. I am posting my reply as i feel others on the list might find the information useful. __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. > http://shopping.yahoo.com/