# Unorganized hive and capped queen cells in September?



## DeeAnna (Nov 5, 2010)

First year beekeeper here, so take this with a grain of salt. I've been reading old (2004) threads on Beesource that discuss this very issue. You might think your TBHs are a mess, but it sounds like this is pretty normal for this time of year.

What is happening is the workers are storing more and more honey on the brood combs in preparation for winter. This is forcing the queen to slow down her laying and to lay on smaller and smaller regions along the lower edge of the combs. 

This results in a long, thin brood nest shape at this time of year. The brood nest will contract into a more compact shape throughout the fall, if I understand correctly.


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## ilivetobealive (May 2, 2011)

That's what I expected...however...I find it very strange that my 3 foot hive was entirely organized and the 4 foot hives aren't. Also, the more toward the front of the hive I went, the more brood I found.


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## Delta Bay (Dec 4, 2009)

I think what you are seeing is in the three foot hive the space is less so the bees can only expand to that size before they have no other choice than to back fill the existing combs. With the four foot they will expand further which will leave the bottom of the combs open for the queen to lay. How long your flow is also plays a role in how far along they will get. If you compared the stores in the two hives they are probably comparable other than the four foot is spread out where the three foot is consolidated. A follower board placed in the four foot at the right time to stop further expansion would likely solve this issue. 
A honey barrier at the right time is a wonderful thing.


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## ilivetobealive (May 2, 2011)

That makes perfect sense Delta Bay. In the future I'll use the follower board to keep the hive smaller until they get organized...I guess they lucked out this year.

Also, as nobody has yet addressed anything about it, what's up with the queen cells? Both of my 4 foot hives have them, all near the bottom of the comb, long and pointy...they haven't swarmed and aren't supersede cells in the middle of the comb?


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## Delta Bay (Dec 4, 2009)

I'm not really sure what is going on there. In my expereince 8 or less queen cells that are all capped at the same time are supersedure cells. Swarm cells will be at different developement stages from egg to capped cells and usually more. The location of the cells are the same with only emergency cells being produced on the face of a comb. Even if they are supersedure cells the colony may or may not send out a swarm. Chances are less likely though.

Personally for my location I would leave as is and watch to see what comes of it.


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## nnewby (Feb 4, 2011)

I am new to beekeeping. This is my first year. One of my TB Hives produced a second queen about 3 weeks ago. I thought it might be a supersedure but they both are still there and doing well. I looked around on the internet and it seams as though this isn't as uncommon at I thought.


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## Calvin King (Oct 5, 2011)

ilivetobealive, I have a question. When you first began your three TBH's did you fill each TBH with top bars or did you use a follower board to begin in a small section of the hive and progressively make it larger as the hive grew?
Calvin,
S. GA.


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