Cant get my supers off

[keith pierce]

Three time now i have attempted to take off my supers but cant. I take out a few frame and give them a shake and i am drowning the bees with fresh nectar that is coming in.Its is the latest ever that i have supers on and am looking at the ivy flower clusters and it looks like the first of them could possable be open in about a week. Thats way ahead of schedual for me as i usually see them starting to work it about the 12th of september. The bees have started into looking for anything at all to rob and am worried that they will start into the apideas. Another 3 or 4 days i should have them all mated and into nucs.

 

[Finman]

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You should take only frames which are capped.

Fresh nectar is just it why bees are nursed. It is called yield.

It is better to take only when the whole box is capped
it is waste of honey if you extrct only couple of frames at one time.

Then with capped frames bees need empty combs where bees put nectar to rippen.

 

[tonybloke]

had a look in one of my colonies just now, BIAS, eggs, queen not seen, but marked / clipped. brood box was rammed with honey, brood, and pollen stores, and 4 frames in the super with unsealed honey in. plus loads of nectar still being brought in.
took out a frame of stores from the brood box, added a new frame with foundation 5 frames in from the edge of the brood box (into the brood area)
this is a july 2012 queen, from an A/S, she's laying well, and hopefully they'll draw this frame and she'll lay it up pdq so increasing the supply of winter bees.

 

[Hivemaker.]

The bees have started into looking for anything at all to rob and am worried that they will start into the apideas.

Seems odd they are looking for anything to rob with all that nectar they are collecting.

 

[keith pierce]

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You should take only frames which are capped.

.

I am not trawling through 100 supers to take out what is capped.

 

[Poly Hive]

Not really much you can do apart from literally go with the flow. And enjoy it!

PH

 

[Lorenz]

100 supers is a lot. Are you saying you want to at least get started on extraction? If so a dehumidifier and a refractometer will mean you can get going. ( If there's a flow on, you'll have to leave them somewhere to put it though.)

 

[Finman]

I am not trawling through 100 supers to take out what is capped.

you do as you do. You have 50 hives an I have 30 hives.
I do not extract uncapped honey.

I have in each hive 4-6 supers. So I have much more supers.

 

[richardbees]

I couldn't identify the problem - until I noticed you have 50 colonies!

 

[Finman]

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50 hives is not much. 500 is.

.

 

[Andy Duff]

one word answer-
PATIENCE

 

[VEG]

surely with that amount of hives you wouldnt be asking such questions

 

[victor meldrew]

surely with that amount of hives you wouldnt be asking such questions

VM

 

[keith pierce]

surely with that amount of hives you wouldnt be asking such questions

i am not asking questions, just venting off. I am leaving them on for another week, or till the weather turns for a few days

 

[melon]

I have had the same problem this year, but have removed most supers today. Have applied the apiguard, and hope the weather stays warm for the next month. Some supers have 3/4 cappings, but others none. I shall have to test carefully when extracting, and leave any wet ones for feeding back in a months time. It is a real pain, and will delay feeding too. Just hope weather stays nice in sept, like last year.

 

[Andy Duff]

I have had the same problem this year, but have removed most supers today. Have applied the apiguard, and hope the weather stays warm for the next month. Some supers have 3/4 cappings, but others none. I shall have to test carefully when extracting, and leave any wet ones for feeding back in a months time. It is a real pain, and will delay feeding too. Just hope weather stays nice in sept, like last year.

fantasticbut not exactly what bee-keeping is all about. Bees 1st honey last.

 

[susbees]

fantasticbut not exactly what bee-keeping is all about. Bees 1st honey last.

Balance in all things....

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Finman]

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To old fart like 30 hives owner, that is not a proplem. It is a harm.

If nectar burst out of combs, problem is that t has not been enough flow that combs are full and capped. Bees cap the honey if cells are full.

So problem is not water content but lack of nectar on pastures. Like we had this summer in Finland, yield is low because temps have not bee high enough. Hives have good pollen stores.

I have not extracted yet. Bee have eaten during last month the open nectar.

Last night we had frost in some parts of South Finland. Day temp was 11C on red clover field 12:00.
In woody places it was 13C.

If I understand right.......the yield of summer is in combs and now bees are covering that yield with ivy. And ivy is not a favorit honey....

What to do. Take honey off. Give it to certain hives that they move the nectar to their combs and cap it. Actully I am doing that just now.

 

[richardbees]

I took the remaining super off three of my hives this afternoon as they have all started to bring in dark brown 'honeydew'.

These frames will be useless as the honey is almost black in the jar and nobody wants it.

 

[keith pierce]

Weather is to turn for the worst here on thursday and is to stay bad till next monday, so i will leave my supers on till then. In the mean time, i think i will start shrinkng down all the supers by taking any of the empty frames out, so all i will be bringing home is supers with honey in them.This will free up a lot of space in the shed and save me a lot of time when i get started spinning.