# Queen laying eggs in my honey supers



## aadams (Aug 24, 2009)

I thought all my frames were full of honey in my honey super so I removed the queen excluder thinking the queen wouldn't cross the honey frames, but I was wrong. When I went to check the new super I had placed, I had both brood and honey all over in my frames. I want to put the queen excluder back on, but I can never see the queen and I'm kind of lost as to how to remedy the problem. Any idea's on what I should do???


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

If you are using mediums for surplus honey supers and you only have 1 or 2 on the colony try smoking the top of the heavly. Build up a good smoke and give the top 12 to 15 good puffs of the smoke, wait a few minutes and repeat. Wait again and then slide in the queen excluder. This will drive the queen down into the bottom brood chamber 6 out of 10 times. If you have only 1 medium super on it works 9 out of 10.

A second method is to remove the supers on to a work stand, remove the frames and shake the bees into the bottom brood chamber, put on the excluder and return the supers to the top of the colony.


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

Well, they say that a queen "usually" won't cross over a solid box of honey to lay, but it can happen as you are a witness to it! Now, how to fix it. Either you have to find the queen and put her down below, or you are going to have to shake all the bees off the honey frames one by one. Pull off the honey supers and excluder and set them aside, then what I do is put an empty box with no frames to act as a funnel of sorts on top of the brood chamber. Shake each honey frame gently to remove most of the bees, not necessary to get every last bee, just so you know the queen is not on the frame. When done replace excluder and supers. As brood hatches out they will fill with honey in the super. Hope this helps, someone may have a better way.


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

AR Beekeeper, another good idea using heavy smoke, I have done it myself a few times and forgot to mention it.


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## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

or you can just leave them bee and the brood will emerge and the workers will back fill with honey forcing the queen down


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

I'm actually amazed that in some of my hives without excluders, the queen is still trying to lay drones in the center couple frames of the first honey super, getting kinda late for that imo.


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## beedeetee (Nov 27, 2004)

honeyman46408 said:


> or you can just leave them bee and the brood will emerge and the workers will back fill with honey forcing the queen down


This might work in some locations, but in mine for example the flow stops suddenly in mid to late July. If she's in the honey super she stays in the honey super. You have to carefully allocate supers to not give the hive too much room without excluders. If you put too many supers on, you get a queen through the fall and winter or until you shake her out and then add an excluder to let the brood hatch.


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

beedeetee, I am seeing the same thing in most of my hives without excluders also, I'm going through and putting her below an excluder right now so that my honey supers get cleared of brood shortly for the fall flow.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

If there is little drone comb in the brood nest, the queen will almost always cross any amount of capped honey to get to drone comb and the bees can tear down nice soft white wax and rebuild it or build drone comb on foundation easily. They can't easily tear down brood comb with cocoons in it. So what happens is the bees build some drone comb in the supers so they can meet their threshold for drones, and the queen lays in it. She may also lay some worker brood while she is there. The solution is to leave enough drone comb in the brood nest...

That and remember that if it has brood in it, it's not a super.  It's a brood box.


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