# Queens up top...fall management



## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

I've been up north rearing queens for the last several months, so my hives in Texas haven't been checked in that time. Lots of folks don't like to do a full hive inspection and go all the way down into the bottom box. What I am finding is that about half of my Texas hives have the queen and the brood nest in the top box with the bottom box nearly empty. I have a few queens that move themselves down into the bottom box at exactly the correct times. Needless to say I breed from those! 

Especially at this time of the year it is a problem because bees will not hardly store honey underneath the brood nest. So you have to go in and place all the frames of brood and the queen down into the lower box. Move all of the frames of honey and empty frames up top. Leave the filled frames in the middle of the upper box without checker boarding so that they have a solid block of honey to move up into when it turns off cold. Hopefully they will fill the empty combs on either side as well.

Get into the habit of lifting the back of your hives to get a feel for how heavy they are. That will tell you a lot about how much in the way of stores they have. Several of the hives that I've had to move the queens down in looked great just by glancing in the top. It even looked like they had tons of honey, but it was just honey along the tops of the bars. When I tilted the hive it told the real story.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Now is a critical time here in the north. Not a lot of days warm enough left to feed a lot to the bees so a full inspection as TxMex suggest is important. Also moving the bees home box to the bottom is important.

Time to ready the hives for over wintering.

 Al


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

I work with a lot of beginning beekeepers and it is common to hear them say that they only go through the top box. That is one reason that when students come over to my apiary at this time of the year that I have them tilt hives. I have some that are nice and heavy and some that are definitely in need of stores. When they can feel the difference for themselves it begins to sink in that they really do need to do a full hive inspection sometimes. 

For a quick health check, there is nothing wrong with pulling a few frames in the top box....especially if there are well placed eggs in the frames. This time of the year that just won't do though.


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