FULL Hive, what do next? (Update on wonky Comb building)
Good morning,
A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of our beehive. The bees were building their comb kinda weirdly. The general opinion was, that they are lacking wax, to smush down what they had built and add more wax to help them thrive. We did just that. They're thriving.
I'm saying They're thriving but I'm actually not 100% sure about that. When is it enough? Can they overflow/outgrow their beehive and then leave?
When we checked the beehive the other day it was FULL. Two boxes with 10 frames were completely filled out. We got stung a few times too, when we ipened the give which to me also is a sign that they are a little agitated and just too full in there. And I'm a bit worried that they will outgrow their hive now and then swarm, simply because they are too crowded in there.
So my questions are:
Do I give them a third box for breeding? If so, when does it stop? Do you add a fourth, a fifth and so on after that? That doesn't really seem practical... So is there a way to naturally tell them "Hey guys... it's fine now :)"?
My next, "logical" step would be to add the Honey boxes on top now. They filled out two boxes for breeding now. I'm thinking, that now is the time to add the honey frames with that meshy layer in between, to prevent the queen from laying eggs in the Comb that the worker bees will build and fill with honey. Will that slow them down too maybe?
We got a Nuc of 5 frames this year in May/beginning of June(can't 100% remember). I feel like they are generally doing great to have filled all that space with colony already. The beekeeper we bought the Nuc from told us, that we will probably struggle to keep them alive in this first year. I feel like I'm having the exact opposite of a problem now lol.
Plwase, please help, so that this endeavour doesn't fail in the first year :)
Location is Nova Scotia, Canada