What happens in the north is the cluster moves up to the lid and then eats the stores above and near them.

As winter passes, the cluster shrinks and loses contact with the outside frames and it is a common practice for beekeepers to check for this and move feed frames in close to the bees and also scratch cappings to assist and encourage the bees.

That operations is best done quickly when it is cold enough and maybe early enough in the day that the cluster is dense, and not on a warm day when the bees are all over and it is hard to work or know where the cluster boundaries are.

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