have I made a mistake?

[gmt186]

Hi all, got my first 2 hives yesterday.

I got home today and added 2 supers to the top of the hives with queen excluder separating them from the brood boxes. On top of this I placed the cover with a feeder to let the bees get a head start as flowering plants are kind of slow here.

I've looked online and some people are saying you should only add one super not 2,let me know if this is right, should I take one back out?

Thanks
G

 

[davnig]

start the second super when the first is full of bees

if you feed with supers on you'll get syrup in the supers - you don't want that.

 

[gmt186]

Should I take one off then?

 

[John M]

Yes. just let any bees that are in it fly back to hive. It may well be totally devoid of bees.

Actually, is it strong enough to need 1 super, how many frames are covered in sealed brood/stores?

 

[gmt186]

Thanks, I'll have a look at them tommorow.

 

[theeggman]

Hi and to the forum.

As a newbie myself I've found that if you can include as much info. with your question it helps the resident experts to get a better picture of your situation and offer good advice faster than having to play post ping-pong to find out what's going on.
Also when you go through them tomorrow take a note pad and pencil and jot down what's there as you see it, frames of brood, stores etc, because that will have an influence on whether supers or feed are needed.

again and enjoy your new hobby.

Tim

 

[REDWOOD]

Hi and welcome, First how big is the brood in the hives? do they have stores? These are two questions you need to know before adding any supers or feeding bees. If they have 7-8 frames of brood and bursting with bees with two frames of stores then add a super only. Putting a feeder on top of supers you will get syrup in your honey frames and the honey won't taste that good.

 

[Davelin]

Hi gmt. Were your hives full hives or nucs when you got them? You need to keep a balance between giving them sufficient room and letting them build up at a pace they can cope with. Normally you would add one super at a time and judge when to add a second by how fast the first was filling up. You would also not normally feed and add supers at the same time as has been stated already.

it is also not advisable to keep opening the hive, however tempting this is when you first get them. Have you joined a local association? do you have a mentor? these are the people who can give you day to day advice and I would strongly urge you to join if you have not already done so.

Check the state of the brood box, if there are 7/8 frames of brood then you should have a super on. If your brood box is only half used then you should not.

 

[victor meldrew]

start the second super when the first is full of bees

if you feed with supers on you'll get syrup in the supers - you don't want that.

New beekeeper, new supers with foundation?
Syrup will do no harm ,takes a lot of syrup to draw out 22 frames of foundation!
VM


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[beebopalula]

Welcome.
What type of hive do you have and are you one of the lucky ones with local varroa-free bees?

 

[gmt186]

All thanks for your reply, im in the Outer Hebrides Scotland.

One hive has 20,000 bees and the other has 5,000.

They are national hives.

I've bought a few books but is there any diaries aailable that give you rough guide on what to do each month. No one else locally with bees.

Cheers

 

[BeeJayBee]

I've bought a few books but is there any diaries aailable that give you rough guide on what to do each month. No one else locally with bees.

A link won't work on here, but do a search for Ian Craig beekeeping year - the one you want is a pdf on the Scottish Beekeepers site. It's a long document, 27 pages!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

All thanks for your reply, im in the Outer Hebrides Scotland.

Which island? might be working up that way in a few weeks. A colleague of mine lives on Scalpay surname starts with Mac or something

One hive has 20,000 bees and the other has 5,000.

Wow! how long did it take you to count them!

I'm taking that's what the person who supplied them told you?
the one with 5,00 ish bees will be nuc size IMHO so you shouldn't need any supers, in fact just a full size hive is a bit much for them if they have mostly undrawn foundation in there, a few pints of 1:1 syrup will do no harm but be careful - they could end up storing it in the combs they have and the queen will have no room to lay.
The 20,000 one seems a bit more built up but still nowhere near full strength, as Redwood said - unless they have eight frames of brood, there's no need for a super.
Maybe we need a little more information to give you anything more than an educated guess.
And welcome to the forum by the way, we're a rum bunch but you're in the right place for hekp and advice (and the odd bit of abuse )

 

[davnig]

New beekeeper, new supers with foundation?
Syrup will do no harm ,takes a lot of syrup to draw out 22 frames of foundation!

yep, good point