> Hi,
>
> First year beekeeper.  I've been doing plenty of reading, but ran into
> a problem
> and have some questions.
>
> When watching others managing their hives, I've noticed that other
> hives
> don't seem to have as high a bee population as mine does.  Is there
> lots
> of variation?
>
> When my two honey supers were mostly capped, I added a third super,
> but
> "bottom supered".  I guess the queen ran out of brood space and ended
> up
> laying in the the bottom honey super (I obviously didn't use a queen
> excluder).
>
> I live in Massachusetts, so should be medicating now.  I received
> advice from
> folks to locate the queen, make sure she is in one of the two hive
> bodies, then
> add the queen excluder between the hive bodies and the honey super,
> let the
> brood hatch out, then remove the honey super for overwintering and
> medicate.
>
> Well, all didn't go according to plan.  I was unable to locate the
> queen.  Again,
> the population of bees seems so much higher in my hive compared to
> others
> I've seen.  Each frame is covered with bees, sometimes 2 deep, and
> this is mid-
> day with good weather.  I had no luck in locating the queen (although
> there were
> very young eggs in the frames of the honey super).  In my attempts to
> locate the
> queen, I spent so much time examining the frames looking for her among
> the
> mass of bees, the bees were tiring of my examination and were getting
> annoyed.
>
> I was also afraid of accidently injuring/killing the queen each time
> I'd replace a
> frame, since there were so many bees.
>
> QUESTION:  Is the population of bees ever so high that the standard
> 80-90lbs
> of honey recommended for overwintering (in the north) is inadequate?
> I'm
> wondering if I should let them have the honey super for overwintering,
> too (I've
> already extracted the other two honey supers).  The honey super has
> two frames
> with eggs and brood, the remaining frames are mostly capped honey and
> nectar.  At this point, should I medicate and leave the honey super on
> all
> winter?
>
> My other choice is to again try to locate the queen in the mass (I
> still might
> not be successful before the bees get annoyed) and exclude, then
> eventually
> remove the honey super when the brood is all gone.  I could then feed
> the honey
> to the bees in the spring.  I could also medicate in 21 days (after
> the brood hatch)
> but that is getting to be too late for my area.
>
> Or is it safer to let the bees have the extra honey in the super?
>
> Thanks for the advice.
>
> Marc