Urban beekeeping in New Mexico's largest city.
We started the year with 2 top bar hives, that I split into 4. The bees come from natural swarms from the area, and they're prone to laying a lot of brood, which is good. It has been a good year in our neighborhood; we've harvested 1.5 gallons, 1 lb. of beeswax and should get the same next week or a bit more. For us, that's very good.
Two of the hives are super-strong, two are strong. There's no sign of swarming at the moment.
My question is this: is there such a thing as too much pollen? With the super-strong hives, it looks like the bees keep bringing back whatever they can, and packing it in. Sunflowers are online now. One hive has 7 bars (28 bar hive total) up front with 2" of honey on top and the rest filled with pollen. Lots of honey/nectar in the back finishing up, and honey across the top of most bars in the brood chamber.
Should I be worried about bars filling with pollen and crowding out the brood chamber? The queens are all laying well, no problem there. They've gone from 18-20 bars of brood to maybe a dozen.
I read about this online, from a person in Hawaii where pollen is available year round, and wondered if it was an issue. They were using Langstroth hives, and would move the excess pollen up into a higher box, and the bees would use it in the spring. If it is a problem, should I do anything about it? It sounds weird to want to cut off 3/4 of a bar, the part that's filled with pollen, to create space and...discard it? Feels odd to think that.
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