# How to deal with backfilling properly and Fast



## Ben Little (Apr 9, 2012)

What is a good way to help out my hives from backfilling so darn much, I have added supers, usually 1 deep or 2 and some 1 medium , some are drawn comb and some aren't.
I have recently went through the hives and pulled out honey from the 2nd deep and checkered it with new foundation for them to draw between the brood combs ready to hatch, trying to force them to use up some of the honey to make combs I then put the honey I pulled out and put in the super.
Is there something else I can do to help slow down the backfilling , I don't have anymore drawn combs left and I have lots of supers to go on, just not really helping the situation. 

We had them in Blueberry fields for pollination and they came back honey bound in the 2 deeps, they went out with 1 full deep and the 2nd with a couple empty combs and 8 ne foundation to draw out for the 3 weeks they were there.

I guess this stuff happens when you work 2 full time jobs.

Swarming... YUP ! had lots of that going on, caught some, lost some. I asked them not to do those sorts of things and they didn't listen to me.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

If you are running deeps for supers, moving honey frames up will help and adding foundation between capped brood frames. Never enough drawn comb! I am fighting the same fight on a much smaller basis. Sounds like you are rolling Ben! Living the dream. You can sleep this winter.


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## Ben Little (Apr 9, 2012)

Yeah I wish I had 2-300 frames of drawn comb for deeps, it would help out a lot. That is my reason for putting 1 or 2 deeps on for honey this year. We don't have a huge amount of hives, right now probably 140+ but I will be making another 50+ nucs for wintering this coming week with mated queens from a local breeder. Next year I hope to be full time at beekeeping 
Thanks
Ben


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## WWW (Feb 6, 2011)

Drawn comb, there never seems to be enough of it, where I live the bees will draw comb in May when the nectar is coming in fast and then it's over for the year, if I want it drawn any other time I need to feed syrup however if you feed too fast the hive will swarm, feeding can be a pain in the butt. Running nucs in the spring is a good way to get comb drawn out.

Back filling is just the natural thing for these frugal little creatures, after the summer solstice they will not draw an ounce of comb if it isn't absolutely needed.

What I am experimenting with now is running a three deep brood box configuration, the hives are going into this winter with as much honey stores in the two upper deeps as is possible, then I will checker these upper deeps in early spring which should encourage expansion and limit swarming. When the spring flow arrives I should have more bees per hive to gather nectar and draw comb in the supers.

I wish you the best Ben, sounds like you are doing well....


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## Belewsboy (Jun 6, 2012)

I had a problem with backfilling this year. First time that's happened. I removed the queens out of a couple of my hives during the flow as I thought they might swarm due to congestion in the brood boxes. My queens were bouncing around all the frames laying a few eggs here and there...anywhere there was an open spot. Ended up extracting my deeps. Don't like to do that...its so easy to blow out the comb.


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## Heintz88 (Feb 26, 2012)

The quickest way to nip the problem in the butt, get all the brood outta the top box, the one you said is full of honey. Pop that and put a empty
Box under it. Otherwise, remove excluders if any or just keep pulling any honey outta the inner six frames.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

Those will be the best looking hives next spring!


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## Ben Little (Apr 9, 2012)

If the ones that are backfilling the nest will be the best looking next spring, I will have a lot of nice hives :banana: 

What makes them turn into better hives, if you don't mind me asking ?



HarryVanderpool said:


> Those will be the best looking hives next spring!


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

I would extract the honey if you don't have enough space and give them back the empty frames to fill up some more.
Then make 300 hives by doing more splits so they will not swarm anymore. By increasing
the hive number it is a sure bet against the bitter cold winter later on. Comes Spring again you
will have some nice looking hives. The honey collected is good for winter honey syrup feeding too. 
Wish I have this kind of a problem.


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## Ben Little (Apr 9, 2012)

My problem is that I haven't enough equipment for that many more hives, I am buying as many boxes as I can afford for honey supers (200) with preassembled frames and I have around 200 mediums of my own I am finishing up this week too, I also have around 50 deeps ready for paint and 15 double nuc boxes I made a few months ago that are getting painted today.

I can only do so much with the amount of time I have after my other full time job


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

This is the main reason why I manage my hives in singles now, so I can take all that production as a crop.


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## WWW (Feb 6, 2011)

Ian;
I do understand the single concept however not being a commercial beekeeper I don't have the time to be in the hives as much as I would like. I work 10 hours a day as a Machinist in a polymer production plant and when I get home in the evenings I am spent mentally and physically so I have developed this system of a 3 deep hive so I can set up the hives in the early spring and not need to get into them again until harvest time in October. There are times when intervention is necessary but these should be minimal.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Ben Little said:


> My problem is that I haven't enough equipment for that many more hives
> 
> I can only do so much with the amount of time I have after my other full time job


Slow down the "back filling?" Why would you want that? Guess you could put nets over them! Slowing them down is not the real issue. 

Ever hear the phrase....... You my son have bit off more than you can chew? Rejoice! You now have personal experience with the time and equipment management issues that every growing side-liner with visions of the big time happens to encounter on the road to a full time headache! 

Better to get a small burn today when handling the fire stick than tomorrow when it is a larger one that's flaring out of control. The ticket price to enter the bee club AKA " Shouldn't have done that" is often pretty steep. 

Keep this moment in your mind when you start to think of how many to start with next spring otherwise this experience will put you in the seat of one who fails to learn from getting a small burn. 

Having to many boxes on hand is a blessing and a curse. IMO having way to many is better than being way to short when it comes to suppers. Keep that in mind when winter plans are being made for spring numbers. 

Been there. Done that.....

On the bee side of things: Would it help to split super them if you did have adequate boxes?


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## Ben Little (Apr 9, 2012)

I am building my numbers up because I am going full time beekeeping next year and I want more hives for pollination ( which I see no end to how many you can rent out ) and also to keep some at home for honey and nuc sales. 

Pollination of blueberries this year was our first big rental and they came back full of honey, since it was busy season @ the shop with mowers etc... I couldn't get the time off to manage them properly directly after bringing them home. _*That won't happen again !!!*_

I just didn't imagine they were going to do as well as they did so far, I was just out to the hives 30 minutes ago doing some opening of the brood nests some of the hives already have 1 full box of honey and they were undrawn deeps and or medium supers.
I made 3 nucs so far from the 12 hives I checked just before lunch and I will probably make some more in a few minutes.

I don't know how to properly manage hives in singles yet, but I can see how it would be easier (specially with an ezyloader  )


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

WWW said:


> Ian;
> so I can set up the hives in the early spring and not need to get into them again until harvest time in October. There are times when intervention is necessary but these should be minimal.


Ditto


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Ben Little said:


> I just didn't imagine they were going to do as well as they did so far, I was just out to the hives 30 minutes ago doing some opening of the brood nests some of the hives already have 1 full box of honey and they were undrawn deeps and or medium supers.


oh, I understand, undrawn deeps. Ya, thats your problem. Soon as you have enough comb, your problem will be relieved.


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## dtompsett (Feb 2, 2010)

Ian said:


> oh, I understand, undrawn deeps. Ya, thats your problem. Soon as you have enough comb, your problem will be relieved.


Ian, you should know by now you can never have enough drawn comb! Get it drawn this year, next year you'll fill it with bees... then you'll have twice as many hives and more new boxes of undrawn comb.


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