Manipulation of the brood box will help alleviate the overcrowding within the hive, simply by “lifting” brood above the queen excluder thereby providing more room for the queen to lay. I tend to select young brood as opposed to sealed brood; sealed brood will hatch a lot sooner than unsealed brood thereby providing more space in which the queen can lay. I would normally lift 3-4 frames of brood at a time, carefully making sure the queen is not accidentally lifted into the honey super with the brood. It is always a good idea to find the queen first prior to lifting frames of brood.

If manipulating early in Spring, ensure the brood lifted AND the brood remaining in the brood box are all together otherwise you will risk “chilling” the brood and killing the bees. Once the weather becomes warmer this is not usually too much of an issue. The beekeeper can space out the frames between the brood frames left in the brood box. I practice replacing brood frames lifted only with drawn, straight, clean, new frames in which the queen can lay. Bees tend to draw frames more fully in the honey super compared to the brood box. It is acceptable to use foundation frames in the brood box, but don’t forget the bees have to be on a honey flow to manufacture the wax need and the queen will not be able to lay in them until drawn- as opposed to immediately with drawn combs.