>>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 ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************