Hi all,

I have a few hives is Southern Alberta. Only one of them is Italian, the 
others being Carniolan, and this Italian hive is being left behind. The 
Italian hive has two full brood boxes, is quite busy, and has a good 
laying queen, but the honey super we put on at the beginning of June (a 
little early, but we were experimenting) has received virtually no 
attention. Only today has the hive started to show interest, with about 
40 bees being in there and trace amounts of honey starting to appear.

The Carniolan hives we have, which are about 20 feet away, have already 
almost filled the honey supers we put on only a week ago. They are 
really going at full-tilt. The honey boxes are chocked full of bees and 
we are going to have to put on additional boxes this week.

One difference is that we are using a queen excluder on the Italian 
hive, again just as an experiment.

I also wanted to know if the bees are averse to storing honey in frames 
that previously held brood. Some of the frames in the Italian honey box 
may have been brood frames before.

Also, we didn't even put second brood boxes on the Carniolan hives until 
June 1, 2007, whereas the Italian hive was wintered with two hives.

These are all the differences I can think of and I am looking for some 
advice on what to do, if anything. I really like these Italians (because 
they seem to like me a whole lot more) so I want to see them do well.

Also, any thoughts on queen excluders would be welcome.

Thanks for the help,

Josh

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