In a message dated 7/21/99 10:12:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> I was thinking that putting the brood chamber
>  on top of the honey supers over a bee escape,
>  then blowing out the remaining bees the
>  following day might do it.
>
>  Has anyone done this?  Will the effort be
>  worth the benefit, or should I just allow
>  the remainder of the season to pass,
>  knowing that the bees will have a hefty
>  supply of honey going into the winter...

    I wouldn't take ALL the upper box, unless you can be sure of fall
feeding. What if the fall flow fails?

    But you also need young bees going into winter, and if the queen is
shutting down this early, and the hive stays honeybound, you won't have young
bees.  How much room does the queen have in the lower box?  If it is mostly
brood, you probably are okay. But if it also has a lot of honey, I'd pull
three or four frames from the top box and give her some laying room. Best to
put back comb, not foundation this late in the season. I find bees don't draw
very good comb on summer or fall flows. You might have to extract and return
the frames in a hurry, if you don't have frames of comb.

   I always try to manage the bees so they have a good supply of brood (at
least one deep box or equivalent) through the goldenrod bloom. Then mama can
quit for a couple months, as the hive will have lots of young bees for
wintering.

[log in to unmask]     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
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