REGARDING RE>Burr/brace On 8/21 John Alexander wrote: "'m in Beltsville Md and started a hive in early july. They built up well in the first deep and I supered up about the middle of July and went on leave for most of August. Just checked the boxes. Bottom brood box looks fine, but the top on is a gawd awful mess. Burr, brace, folds and other generally bad looking work. It's is also exclusively full of honey. No brood! Plenty of brood in the bottom though. Any thoughts on what I can do to get them to draw out better and maybe get the queen to start laying up top?" Just a few thoughts. I think it's perfectly normal that your queen is laying in the bottom hive body and the top is filled with honey. At this time of the year, I wouldn't be at all concerned about that. During the winter, as the honey from the upper hive body is consumed, the cluster will gradually move up and fill that hive body with brood. However, you should probably intervene to clear up the excessive burr and brace comb that is being build in the upper hive body. I would move frames around, cutting off the brace comb, and positioning the cut areas opposite good comb regions, if you can find them. Be careful, however, since you are using Duragilt foundation, not to cut close to the foundation. If the plastic core is exposed, the bees will clean all wax off of it and never use that part again. This then gives an open invitation to build up *lots* of brace comb on the comb facing the bare plastic. This is one of the main reasons that I will never use Duragilt again. Ted Fischer