My sweet but strange hive

[Bees & Beeks]

I have one hive who has an exceptionally prolific laying Queen. She’s currently at 3 deep and 2 medium super right now and I’m constantly taking away brood frames from her because she’s gentle. The quirky thing is that instead of filling honey on the top ALL 5 boxes has brood. She lays brood on frames in the right side and honey is stored on the left side. Other than liking her temperament and laying prowess, it’s simply easy to pull a frame from the top box vs digging through honey to get to brood chamber. Her daughters don’t seem to do this. Has anyone else experienced this?

Counting the brood frames - it’s about 12 deep and 7 medium frames - which isn’t too unusual for this time of year. It’s WHERE she lays them that has me perplexed. But I love her neurodivergence.


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[Danny Williamson]

I'm surprised no one answered your question. It sounds like your colony is in a nectar dearth and overcrowded resulting in being honey bound and the queen has not normal laying patterns than normal. I've encountered this before with a nectar dearth. My question is the foraging bees bringing in nectar? When your digging through to honey to get to the brood chamber has the honey been on those frames for awhile and maybe you moved the hive to a different location that doesn't have bees much to forage?

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[Robin Chatham]

I've heard that bees will build brood near the entrance. Is that the case here?

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[Danny Williamson]

Yeah especially if they are crowded and there is the space they will do that. 

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[Bees & Beeks]

Blake - that was my initial thought when I put on the 3rd box.  So re-arranged the brood frames to the middle and flanked her with honey before placing on 3rd box.  When I checked back in ~3 weeks they had moved the brood back to left side!   It’s one several hives that has gap in rear where bees use as secondary entrance & exits.  I had previously thought of repairing or replacing these older boxes but bees seem to thrive in them and if they don’t like the gap, they propolize  and close it up. 

Few of the far most right frames have honey on one side and brood on the other, so there are some honey to right side but generally she is moving up to lay.  She has plenty of space to lay and it’s a very healthy hive.  I’ve just never seen this before.  

Mimi 

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On Mar 26, 2026, at 7:19 AM, Danny Williamson <bmovi...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Bees & Beeks]

Yes the larger entrance is to the right side. There’s also a gap in back of left bottom box that bees also use. 

Mimi 

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On Mar 26, 2026, at 8:03 AM, Robin Chatham <angel202...@gmail.com> wrote:



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