>>I do generally practice unlimited brood nest management and rarely 
see swarming/absconding.

I am having some impressive results with 3-deep broodnest hives w/o 
excluders so far - 2 medium supers (8 frames/super) full of [mostly 
autumn olive] honey at the time when black locust has not started 
blooming! [It should start this week.]  After the locust, there will 
be basswood, sumac intermixed with white clover, poison ivy, 
clethera, Japanese knotweed, losestrife and others.  It may be a 
bumper year.:)

I have one 3-deep nest hive that is super strong with lots of brood 
in all 3 deeps.  It has 4 medium supers on it (2 full of honey, 1 
partial with honey, 1 empty on top).  I found queen cells in the nest 
that appear to be swarm cells since there was quite a bit of nectar 
in the brood nest (I'd expected them to push it up into the supers 
instead of backfilling the nest to prepare for swarming).

I checkerboarded the top deep with foundation and moved the empty 
drawn-out super to just over the broodnest to switch off the swarming 
urge.  Is this approach right? 
 
I had read Walt Wright's writing on how the wires in queen excluders 
are perceived by bees as barriers to upward nectar movement.  What 
about 8 frames per super?  Do they also make bees think there is 
a 'ceiling' at the bottom super?  [In nature, bees are used to 
continuous comb from top to bottom.]  Can the transition from 10 
frames in the nest to 8 frames in the supers make the bees think 
they've run out of room?

Your thoughts and insights will be much appreciated!

Waldemar
Long Island, NY

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