Hello master beekeepers, I currently have a colony in 8frame Langstroth (two Deep) boxes, and there are many many bees, on top of the frames where I place sugar block candy weekly, and then I have an overwintering cover with more bees and more dry sugar.  My concern is how to provide enough room for hive expansion and when to do it.   Basically I have two weeks now end of Feb to first week of March. After that I will be away in England for 3 weeks.  Should I hold off from adding another medium or deep box until I get back at end of March or will that be too late?

Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome, don’t know what to do since the weather is so cold, thank you

Hi Gloria – Yeah, being gone for 3 weeks in March and not knowing what’s going with your hives can be tough.  As a mitigation step to reduce the potential of swarming later in spring,  honey stores and space above the brood nest should be watched during this time.  If the brood nest is entirely in the top box, you could reverse the bottom box with top.  Or you could try checkerboarding frames above the brood nest provided you have the equipment for this before you go.  Where do you keep your bees?  Maybe I could take at least one trip out to fill in while you are gone.  I won’t mind.