Allen Dick is a very astute observer of bee behavior as he sees and senses
the subtleties of bee behavior on the issue of comb stimulus.  As I recall
Dr. Cam Jay, ret. is the researcher who published the information that bees
hoard honey in direct proportion to the amount of empty comb above the
brood nest, and as Allen says, within reason.  This holds true up to some
point over the top of the bell shaped curve of the honey flow.  Allen's
observations agree with mine over the last 25 years here in Washington.
 
His observations that bees store honey faster and more, close to the brood
nest, is why I have recommended for years that beekeepers bottom super,
i.e. put the empty super just above the excluder.  If an excluder is not
used, leave the first honey super (western or deep) above the brood nest
and then put add the empty super just above that first honey super.  If you
are into comb manipulation you can even leave six frames of honey in the
center of the first super to keep the queen down and rotate the four
outside frames up regularly and put four empty combs in the first super for
the bees to fill.  As the honey flow slows down full combs or supers are
moved up and the uncapped combs are placed closest to the brood nest for
completion and to crowd the queen down with honey for winter.  Timing here
is important - too late and you may need to move combs of honey into the
top brood nest box for winter stores, too early and the bees may overfill
the brood nest causing a reduction in the cluster size that will go into
winter, which may result in colony demise with prolonged low temperatures
during winter.
 
James C. Bach
WSDA State Apiarist
Yakima WA
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