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slider955i

New Bee
Joined
Feb 28, 2010
Messages
66
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0
Location
stourbridge , westmidlands
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
1
put my 1st super on last week and 8 out of the 11 frames are already drawn out in a week :hurray: do i wait untill the honey is started to be capped before i put the other super on or should i put the other super on inbetween the 1st super and the brood next weekend ?

many thanks , learming all the while :cheers2:
 
Hang on here.

You have 8 frames being worked on NOW and are pondering putting on the next super NEXT weekend?

Where do you think your swarm will hang up? LOL

Super them tomorrow please.

I have seen three supers filled in a week, as I keep saying folks have no idea how fast they can move. :)

PH
 
I put my first super on just over a week ago,I left the queen guard off to get the bees up,when I checked on friday the queen was back in the brood box,she had laid some eggs in the supers though,there is a lot of honey in the brood box and the super is starting to fill up(probably 3/4 full)so I put a second super on today.
 
And what steps did you take to move the honey out of the brood box?

You see if you do not bruise it and actively work the brood box the queen will be restricted.

PH
 
And what steps did you take to move the honey out of the brood box?

You see if you do not bruise it and actively work the brood box the queen will be restricted.

PH

Ahh ha!! thats given me a possibility for tomorrow :)
 
PH,
When you say bruise, would you actually puncture the capping or just deform it?
 
and as a follow-up...

are we trying to get rid of all of the honey in the brood box, or just the frames that are more honey than anything else?
 
put my 2nd super on today and i am getting a 3rd and 4th ready just in case
the honey in the 1st super is uncapped and i have moved this super to the top , i presume it takes a while for the honey stores to be capped, is it ok to leave supers on untill end of season and then get all the honey at once.

we have a lot of himayalan balsam in the area which is late flowering this year which may give us an extended season.
 
By bruise I mean pass your hive tool over it so that they cappings look wet, but try to avoid honey running every where... could get nasty with robbing.

If you work your brood combs with your hive tool you will or should end up with a brood box full of brood which is what you are after. Sorry.

I will rephrase that.

Assuming you are after a honey crop you might want to have as many bees as possible but not all on the forum share that interest.

PH
 
By bruise I mean pass your hive tool over it so that they cappings look wet, but try to avoid honey running every where... could get nasty with robbing.

If you work your brood combs with your hive tool you will or should end up with a brood box full of brood which is what you are after. Sorry.

I will rephrase that.

Assuming you are after a honey crop you might want to have as many bees as possible but not all on the forum share that interest.

PH

If I bruise the combs will the bees eat the honey or move it?
 
slider955i,

Just as a way of educating the new beeks I would suggest you consider the amount of nectar brought in for a single super and so the amount of water that has been removed.

You might then understand the need for extra space before the super is full.

However drawing out the comb is not quite the same as filling it with honey (as your initial post may have implied). You could also remove one or two of those frames and make more space for honey in that super. Only you will know how fast the super is filling and that may not be the amount in there at the end of the day, but will indicate the need for some extra space and the need for the bees to draw the comb for that extra space. The weather and forage can make a huge difference, so I would suggest you keep copious notes for future reference until you get more experience.

Regards, RAB
 
I checked my bees yesterday as when I read this thread I got worried that the bees would have filled the first super that I put on just over about 10 days ago. I had checked them 4 days ago and they had drawn a lot of the foundation but not filled any frames, but when I saw what Poly Hive wrote about bees being able to fill up to 3 supers in a week, I thought I should look. They had filled nearly 7 frames so I'm glad I did!

I added another super, but my question is that if they can fill several in one week does that mean we should be checking more than once a week. Up to now, I've just been doing weekly checks....
 
Move it.[/B

In addition to the simple answer; bees don't eat honey if they can avoid it!

They normally would use nectar for feeding both themselves and the brood. Only in times of nectar shortage is honey used. If brooding, they would then need copiuous supplies of water to convert the honey to larvae-feed.

Hope that helps to explain it.

Regards, RAB
 
does that mean we should be checking more than once a week.

Know your colony, know your flow. So the answer is sometimes, or maybe add more than one super, or even better to have drawn comb, as filling will be faster that way. Poly Hive may be referring to this mode of filling (or may not....)

Regards, RAB
 
Know your colony, know your flow. So the answer is sometimes, or maybe add more than one super, or even better to have drawn comb, as filling will be faster that way. Poly Hive may be referring to this mode of filling (or may not....)

Ok, thanks for the advice RAB. I guess I will get to know my bees habits with time - have only had them a few weeks so at the moment I'm being more reactive than proactive. :)
 
As a rule of thumb in an ideal world three supers are required.

With drawn comb I add.

If you have but foundation then that is what you have so work it, as it gets drawn move it to the outside and keep it moving. Add the next super and so on.

But for preference and to get things moving well use poly supers. ;)


Ph
 
As a rule of thumb in an ideal world three supers are required.

With drawn comb I add.

If you have but foundation then that is what you have so work it, as it gets drawn move it to the outside and keep it moving. Add the next super and so on.

But for preference and to get things moving well use poly supers. ;)


Ph

cheers
 
But for preference and to get things moving well use poly supers. ;)


Ph


Fiddlesticks.

Much as I am a 'smidge' sceptical about poly hives I have to hold my hand up and say that I have rolled out some Denrosa poly National supers within the last week and the bees have taken to them very well.

I will be trialling a full poly National hive in the not too distant future too.

Pah!
 
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