One of my hTBHs is absolutely *full* of honey. I opened it last Friday
and as I prised off the last of the end bars furthest from the entrance,
it came away from the comb beneath and I could see that the comb was
completely full. I can't take any honey because of the cross combing
further in to the hive and the fact that removing a top bar breaks the
honey-filled cells beneath, and this makes a mess. Trying to get out
the comb underneath would make a really horrible mess and undoubtedly
kill a number of bees, so I'm not going to try this. However, I'm
curious about how the bees manage when they haven't got any more space
available to fill? There's a lot of activity with bees flying in and out
and some clustering above the entrance, and they're still bringing in
pollen and the temperature above the top bars at the entrance end
suggests they still have brood. It must happen in the wild too that
sometimes they run out of space. Does anyone know what happens? Do the
bees fly less, or eat more honey, or just get stressed...? Though
there's no sign of them being stressed - they were surprisingly
good-tempered when I broke their comb (only one bee got angry) and they
don't object to me being close by.
Gilliane
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