Empty supers.

[robbohenn]

Good morning. I have one overwintered colony (new one last year) in my WBC with 14 x 12 brood frames, that don't seem to be filling the supers. In the autumn they filled up the frames in the bb with honey (winter stores) and when I checked a month ago, even though there was fresh brood, they still seemed to be filling the brood frames. I put a super on ( but had no fully drawn out frames in) and when I checked this week there were bees on the supers but they still hadn't drawn them out and there was still plenty of honey on the brood frames. At this rate it doesn't look as if I'll be extracting any honey this year! Anything I can do to encourage them to do the right thing? TIA.

 

[Erichalfbee]

They will draw the frames out when they need them. How many frames FULL of brood have they? I super on 7 frames.
You could take the QX if the brood is full

 

[blackcloud]

Too much room in a 14/12 for that particular colonies DNA to make use of?
Oh see how they bite....
Try some new foundation ( from a different supplier)
Apart from one or two warm spells the foraging around here seems to be on hold so they won't be storing much until the temps pick up.

 

[Antipodes]

Good morning. I have one overwintered colony (new one last year) in my WBC with 14 x 12 brood frames, that don't seem to be filling the supers. In the autumn they filled up the frames in the bb with honey (winter stores) and when I checked a month ago, even though there was fresh brood, they still seemed to be filling the brood frames. I put a super on ( but had no fully drawn out frames in) and when I checked this week there were bees on the supers but they still hadn't drawn them out and there was still plenty of honey on the brood frames. At this rate it doesn't look as if I'll be extracting any honey this year! Anything I can do to encourage them to do the right thing? TIA.

Generally I find that there are two main reasons that a colony won't store excess honey (and build out comb): there is not enough of a flow on or there are not enough foraging bees (colony strength). Both of these things can be surprisingly hard to judge.

 

[Coop]

I added a super on good Friday during the nice weather as they were running low on space and building charged QCs. They filled it within a week so I added another. Since then though the weather has been pretty cold with few bees flying and they haven't touched the new super at all. Better weather over the next few weeks will hopefully help.

 

[Boston Bees]

Good morning. I have one overwintered colony (new one last year) in my WBC with 14 x 12 brood frames, that don't seem to be filling the supers. In the autumn they filled up the frames in the bb with honey (winter stores) and when I checked a month ago, even though there was fresh brood, they still seemed to be filling the brood frames. I put a super on ( but had no fully drawn out frames in) and when I checked this week there were bees on the supers but they still hadn't drawn them out and there was still plenty of honey on the brood frames. At this rate it doesn't look as if I'll be extracting any honey this year! Anything I can do to encourage them to do the right thing? TIA.

I added a super on good Friday during the nice weather as they were running low on space and building charged QCs. They filled it within a week so I added another. Since then though the weather has been pretty cold with few bees flying and they haven't touched the new super at all. Better weather over the next few weeks will hopefully help.

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[drex]

As Dani says, they will use the super when they need it. Why would they put food miles away from the brood, where it is actually needed. As the colony grows they will start on the super