Hello Alan & All,
Alan said:
Is it still felt that such a "pollen bar" frame should be moved towards the
side of the brood box and replaced with
empty frames during the spring build up?

There are many ways to keep bees and the bees usually manage to survive no
matter which way the beekeeper manipulates the frames.

There is no general rule about the above but if you look at the brood nest
and the frames have got a nice circle of pollen around the brood and the
hive is strong then I would move the above pollen frame towards the side.

I never split the brood nest when cold weather is still around. Even putting
a couple frames in the center of the brood nest can split the cluster. If
you put a MT drawn frame comb next to a small cluster the queen will expand
out when the time is right.

We never put a frame with many drone cells in the brood nest. We knew our
hives had been looked at while in California (not by us) because when the
hives returned and we were doing our spring checks in many hives we found
the frames we keep in each hive for natural drone rearing placed in the
center of the brood nest. My partner and I NEVER place those frame in the
brood nest. The curious had pulled the brood nest comb and had placed the
combs back different than we had the comb arranged!

The reason we will scream at an employee placing frames so is to me so
obvious I am not going to write why.

If we are talking about a three frame *made up* nuc then the pollen frame
needs to be close to the brood at first. A standard practice is 2 or 3
frames of brood in the nuc center and a pollen frame to one side and a frame
of honey to the other side of the inside three.

Each beekeeper has his own way of making up nucs and many would surprise the
novice. Nucs need to be treated different than an established hive. I
personally rework nucs each week for weeks. Especially if the number of
*shake* bees was low when the nuc was made up.

 I certainly have not got all the beekeeping answers! How about a couple
lurkers coming on and sharing the way they handle a pollen bound hive.

I have seen whole yards so bound with pollen the queen has no place to lay
eggs. I have had skids of frames of pollen I have pulled to help the bees
get started in spring. Rare but happens. I believe if a nectar flow fails
and plenty of pollen is available the bees will hoard pollen.

Bob

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