I started my first hive 7 months ago (package bees). Bees are doing great. They’ve filled out a 10 frame brood box, and i’ve got half of the flow frames full of capped honey. I harvested one flow frame and have left the rest for the bees as we’re going into winter here in Sydney.
Today was blue sky, no wind and about as warm as its going to get this time of year so I thought I would do one more final inspection before the really cold weather hits.
Going through the brood box, the outer two frames were full of capped honey as expected. But as i inspected more frames it was evident that at least the next 4 were also full of honey - no brood to be seen. I did see lots of young bees, and the hive is strong - so I decided not to pull the rest of the hive apart as I couldnt see any evidence of pest and wanted to keep my inspection short. I installed new HB traps and put everything back in place.
In a 10 frame brood box - is it normal to have so many frames (maybe half the brood box?) full of honey going into winter?
Once a frame is full of honey - can the bees later use the same frame for brood?
