In a message dated 97-06-15 06:01:53 EDT, you write:
 
<<
 > I winter in 2 deeps  now I am finding the BC's so full of honey that I am
 > extracting four combs of it and feeding it to my startup colonies to draw
 > foudation with and returning the empty combs to the BC's.
 > Is this a common practice to relieve BC congestion?
 > Perhaps too much work for the big guys but I get about 3 gallons of syrup
 > from 4 fat combs and it keeps my sugar bill lower and my queens busy.
 
 It would seem counterproductive to me to extract honey and feed it in
 liquid form back to other colonies. Maybe there's something I'm not
 quite understanding?
 
 Conrad Sigona >>
once the brood chamber fills up with honey the bees either use the supers for
brood or swarm  since brood chamber honey has had syrup and or medications i
use it to feed my startup colonies and empty comb goes back into the brood
nest for use by the queen.  In most cases  this honey was laid up last fall
and the cappings are quite dark so as to make recognizing it easy- once it
passes through the bees in my startup colonies it comes out as nice white wax
and fat brood.
 
Maybe I am missing something?