Advice please on how to feed when there is honey in the super

[RoyCropper]

Hi,

I'm a new beek this year and this is my first post.

I have 2 colonies and 1 has done quite well and has 4 frames full of honey in the super. The rest of the frames are undrawn foundation. The brood box is light so I want to feed them now with a MM jumbo feeder.

My question is do I remove the super, then feed for a few weeks, then put the super and honey back on top? Or do I put the feeder on top of the super?

I'd rather they took it into the brood box so I was going too store the honey for a few weeks and then replace it over the BB. Is this correct?

Thanks for any advice.

Roy

 

[drstitson]

remove the full super/frames. season is over. any forage now will mainly be ivy (with some HB). winter stores are your priority from now on.

you may wish to be on brood and a half - if so feed with the super on.

NB to be kind to bees leave them the frames of honey and feed with super on.

 

[george]

Take the super off , spin out the honey for you to keep . Put the feeder over the brood box and feed . If its a 3 gall mm feeder and you are mixing your own sugar syrup I would half fill it , let them take it down then refill . If you are using a proprietry syrup(ambrosia) then fill it right up and get your feeding done in one hit .
Put your super into store for Winter . It goes back on next Spring when they get going again . You dont feed with a super on unless you want a super full of syrup, which you probably dont .
As soon as it is heavy enough get your varroa control on . Its getting a little late so asap .
G

 

[luckyclover]

I wouldn't expect them to draw foundation anymore now. If you want to keep the honey take the frames off, if not put them above a crownboard and let the bees take it down for winter.

 

[george]

There are still swarms cropping up in one or two places so drawing wax is still possible . If you give them no option they will draw it out quickly .
I put a spare brood box on top of a huge colony 2 wks ago to give it some space and they drew out a full box of Commercial foundation and had it capped in about 8 days .

G

 

[rae]

National or 14x12?

If standard national, leave them with the brood and super all winter - remove the queen excluder at the end of autumn. Give them feed if they need it so that the super and BB are full. Balance this with Ivy flow, or whatever you have - don't ram them with feed or they will have nowhere to lay. When you inspect in spring, the super will be full of brood, so you don't need to worry about syrup in your honey.

If 14x12, you can remove the super and feed, and leave them in the 14x12 for winter, or you can leave it on. Doesn't really matter.

They will draw foundation if they have a flow on (either artificial or real)

 

[RoyCropper]

Thanks for the advice. I'd always intended leaving this honey for the bees and already have Apiguard in so I won't be extracting it.


Ray

 

[BBG]

Take the super off , spin out the honey for you to keep . Put the feeder over the brood box and feed . If its a 3 gall mm feeder and you are mixing your own sugar syrup I would half fill it , let them take it down then refill . If you are using a proprietry syrup(ambrosia) then fill it right up and get your feeding done in one hit .
Put your super into store for Winter . It goes back on next Spring when they get going again . You dont feed with a super on unless you want a super full of syrup, which you probably dont .
As soon as it is heavy enough get your varroa control on . Its getting a little late so asap .
G

Doesn't using Ambrosia mean you can use less than the sugar mix?

 

[george]

My apologies but I am not sure what you mean by the question . I was trying to say (clumsily probably) that with sugar syrup it could ferment before it is taken down if there is a large volume of it , whereas Ambrosia can be left on for long periods without this problem .
Unless you mix Thymol with it of course ...

G

 

[For want of a better word]

Leave your super on as now the honey in there will be thymol tainted... fill up the super with already extracted drawn comb... not foundation... I use the tattier looking ones.
Feed with your 2:1 thymolated syrup
when finished feeding and bees have rammed super full of ivy and sugar, remove QE, put super underneath the brood boxe(s)

enjoy your winter break... you will need it for next spring you will have a healthy bee explosion!

 

[RoyCropper]

Leave your super on as now the honey in there will be thymol tainted... fill up the super with already extracted drawn comb... not foundation... I use the tattier looking ones.
Feed with your 2:1 thymolated syrup
when finished feeding and bees have rammed super full of ivy and sugar, remove QE, put super underneath the brood boxe(s)

Sound like a plan!

Couple of supplementary questions spring to mind

As this is my first year I do not have any other drawn comb to put in the super - just foundation. Perhaps they'll draw a bit more out? When I've finished feeding should I remove the frames with foundation and put some insulation in to pad it out?

What's thymolated syrup - Is this using crystals? Do I need to do this if I've had the Apiguard on?

Why does the super go under the brood box? Won't the bees move up to take the honey when they need it?

Thanks

Roy (with lots to learn)

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You add a bit of thymol in suspension to you syrup - it also prevents it from going mouldy read Hivemaker's thymol recipe in sticky posts

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6513

 

[RoyCropper]

Thanks for the info.

I've followed Hivemakers recipe and now have 2 gallons of thymolated syrup on both my hives. Lets hope they come through the winter happy and healthy.


Roy