I am new here. Don’t even know if I am doing this correctly so here goes. I am in need of a mentor. I am in northeast Texas.
My 2 brood boxes are full. They are filling out the last two frames. Is it too late to put on super or what do I do? Do I start another hive or is it too late? I don’t want them to swarm. I am getting so confused.
I did a deep dive inspection this morning. Lots of pollen and new brood. Some hive beetles too. I have oil in the bottom pan that had lot of wiggly larvae and i have a trap in each box. Changed them out too. Anything else I need to do concerning SHB?
I didn’t see a lot of honey, like frames covered and capped like lots of folks on Facebook are showing. I asked a simple question in Beekeeping for Beginners and got blasted. I hope this is a friendly group. Glad I found it.
Sure have a lot of questions and really need a mentor if anyone in my area.
Sorry, initially posted this in the wrong category…
Hello and welcome! I think you’ll find the people in this forum to be quite friendly and inviting.
Yes - bees are winter prepping and I wouldn’t recommend you add the flow super or plan to take any honey this year, especially considering that there isn’t excess honey in the brood boxes.
I wouldn’t recommend splitting at this time of the year. The bees are unlikely to swarm in the late summer/fall especially if they have a young queen and aren’t out of space in their current location.
Making sure the tray is clean and the bees don’t have excess space to defend (and high proportion of workers, if you ask @JeffH) should usually take care of SHB. Having the hive in a sunny location helps too, but make sure they don’t get too hot in your location so some afternoon dappled shade would be good.
You might search the connect with locals category - and maybe be more specific about your location… Texas is quite vast and varied.