I'm new to this wonderful world of bees. I have a fairly strong hive in
Sonoma  County in northern Calif. This colony was started from a 3#
package on April 10. Yesterday, I removed 5 frames of perfectly capped
comb honey. It was one of the most exciting days I've had in a while.
The stuff tastes like no other honey I've ever had (a bit of pride
showing here...sorry)

Five of the frames I left were not capped on one side of the frames. All
were oriented to the East in the hive. Is this normal, ie: with cooler
morning temps, are the bees reluctant to work the East side of the
combs? Should I reverse the frames' orientation  in the hive?

This colony is really strong. I reversed the deeps a few weeks ago and
have another medium super half full of honey. I added another super
yesterday and returned the 5 half uncapped frames on a third, on top.

The question:  I'm leaving for three weeks on vacation will that be
enough space?


The deeps are VERY heavy, lots of honey down there, full of bees. I
don't plan to harvest any more honey this year, as I want to insure the
colony survival this winter. I'm really suprised at how much honey bees
can make...

Thanks for the help.

Mark