I’m noticing that the bees have different patterns for capping honey in my hive. The two center most frames have a pattern like a brood frame. There is a half moon pattern with the capped honey being on the outer most edges and the middle is still uncapped. Then on the frames moving away from the center, the side of the frame facing towards center is fully capped and the back side facing away from center is not capped at all. So, has anyone else noticed different patterns to capping? And has anyone tried to move the frames around so that the sides that were facing away from the center are not facing the center? Or perhaps move the center frames out towards the sides?
Hi Michael, my bees left a brood half moon in my middle flow frames too the first time they filled them. The second and third time they filled the entire frames, in the same year. Perhaps they learned queen will not come up there.
I only have one brood box, maybe they did need more brood space at some stage. To manage I took a brood frame out to give to another nuc once in a while. Now it’s almost winter and they likely reduced laying a bit. No more half moons.
Hi Mike, the bees leave the half moon pattern you are describing for the queen to lay in. If those cells are dry & the rest of the frame is capped, it is safe to harvest the honey.
Yes I have moved frames of honey around so bees will finish a frame. Mainly the outside frames I’ll reverse because sometimes the outside is uncapped while the inside is capped.