David Eyre mentions bees storing pollen above a brood nest and queen
excluders.

I have noted this on numerous occasions with poor queens whose bees exhibit
what I've called aberrant behaviors in previous posts.  My observations
suggest that they only do this when there is a lack of a queen retinue and
thus a lack of queen  pheromones.  Bees will store one to three combs of
pollen immediately above the center of the brood rearing area above the
excluder, and place almost none below or to the sides of the brood rearing
area.  I have also observed  them to store a deep super of honey below the
brood rearing area under the same circumstances.

It has been my observation that the location of where bees store pollen and
honey are traits that are subject to stock selection, like pollen and nectar
hoarding, the size of the spring cluster, cluster density at 55 F., queen
attractiveness and other bee behaviors, provided nutrition and other
necessities for a colony are at the optimum.

James C. Bach
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