How to draw out super foundation before spring flow?

[mattjames74]

Hello everyone!

I currently have 4 overwintered 14x12 hives and 1 nuc. I wish to maximise the amount of honey my 4 hives make. Unfortunately I have no drawn super foundation. How can I maximise my honey production with no drawn foundation for my supers? How can I quickly get the foundation drawn? Can I feed lots and remove the "funny honey" ready for the nector flow? Can I feed the nuc and get them to draw the super foundation out ready for the hives?

What are my options?

Thanks.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

How can I maximise my honey production with no drawn foundation for my supers? How can I quickly get the foundation drawn? Can I feed lots and remove the "funny honey" ready for the nector flow? Can I feed the nuc and get them to draw the super foundation out ready for the hives?

not really, they won't draw out the foundation until
a) the temperature has risen
b)a flow on and
c)they need the space
My advice would be, wait until the spring is well underway and temperatures rise then leave them draw comb and store the surplus.
Any other method is going to almost guarantee you get your honey contaminated by processed sugar.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

And you have to realise that early spring the old and knackered winter bees are working hard to build up a strong colony - do you really want to jeopardise that in the pursuit of a little extra honey?

 

[ericbeaumont]

get them to draw the super foundation out

a) the temperature has risen
b)a flow on and
c)they need the space

d) a strong workforce of the right age to produce wax

 

[drex]

You can't have everything with maximum goals in the same year. Sometimes I aim for honey, others more bees and others more comb. It is usually a compromise.

 

[Antipodes]

Hello everyone!

I currently have 4 overwintered 14x12 hives and 1 nuc. I wish to maximise the amount of honey my 4 hives make. Unfortunately I have no drawn super foundation. How can I maximise my honey production with no drawn foundation for my supers? How can I quickly get the foundation drawn? Can I feed lots and remove the "funny honey" ready for the nector flow? Can I feed the nuc and get them to draw the super foundation out ready for the hives?

What are my options?

Thanks.

Good question.
I find that I need a large colony to make the most of any honey flow and then(when large) they will also draw up the foundation quickly. I once moved a really big colony to gather nectar in a better spot, removing a super or two from them immediately before moving, and adding in their stead a couple of supers with foundation. I stopped overnight with the bees to camp, arriving at the new site in the early morning and opened them up in the new spot to have a look at the super frames. The central frames were about 3/4 drawn overnight and most of the rest at least 1/2 drawn. Quite amazing.
I'd say try and get the numbers of bees right up in time to catch the flow, which I find usually involves really skilful swarm mitigation and other skilled beekeeping work.

 

[madasafish]

Get one hive drawing comb interspaced 1 on 1 with drawn comb. Then remove drawn comb and give to other colonies..

But also a) to d) above

 

[Sutty]

It sounds like you are thinking to feed them heavily so they draw comb to store it. This might work (but see a to d above). However there will be syrup stored in the newly drawn comb, and even if you extract it there will be some left to contaminate honey stored in it subsequently.
I remember seeing someone advertising drawn comb, but that brings it's own potential problems!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Agree with all the others. We need to teach new beekeepers patience in the beginner classes. There’s always next year.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Agree with all the others. We need to teach new beekeepers patience in the beginner classes. There’s always next year.

but that's the instant/disposable society for you in our brave new world

 

[Erichalfbee]

Maybe it’s just the impatience of a beginner. They see all these videos of yellow fields stretching to the horizon and supers of OSR.

 

[jarmo henttu]

Hello everyone!

I currently have 4 overwintered 14x12 hives and 1 nuc. I wish to maximise the amount of honey my 4 hives make. Unfortunately I have no drawn super foundation. How can I maximise my honey production with no drawn foundation for my supers? How can I quickly get the foundation drawn? Can I feed lots and remove the "funny honey" ready for the nector flow? Can I feed the nuc and get them to draw the super foundation out ready for the hives?

What are my options?

Thanks.

Only option is to wait that bees start to draw combs. So they do alone in nature.

 

[Antipodes]

Does anyone do much to their colonies to get them ready/in best shape for a spring flow?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Does anyone do much to their colonies to get them ready/in best shape for a spring flow?

nope - the least fiddling around the better

 

[Sutty]

Only thing I've ever done is use pollen patties - not sure it made any difference though!

 

[Antipodes]

These sorts of things.

https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/a...ement-for-winter-early-spring-pollination.pdf


https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/321712/Spring-management-of-bees.pdf

 

[ericbeaumont]

These sorts of things.

https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/a...ement-for-winter-early-spring-pollination.pdf
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/321712/Spring-management-of-bees.pdf

Straightforward and sensible, apart from this, which is pretty much a no-no in the UK: Colonies displaying identifiable levels of European foulbrood disease in autumn will require treatment with the antibiotic oxytetracycline hydrochloride (OTC) in autumn to prevent a major disease problem in spring. Alternatively, colonies displaying signs of European foulbrood disease should be removed from the group of colonies being prepared for pollination and treated by other management practices.

 

[sipa]

Draw any foundation requirements the previous season and store, or better to say draw foundation this year ready for next.
Obviously drawing wax is very energy intensive so you will lose honey production.

 

[jarmo henttu]

Does anyone do much to their colonies to get them ready/in best shape for a spring flow?

I have fed 30 years pollen and pollen patty to hives to get spring flow. I must conclude that our early summer is too cold to get yeild enough.

If I got 15 kg honey and then it came 2 rainy week, bees ate the crop.

Our spring blooming is abundant, but after dandelion we have 3 weeks summer flower gap.

During our spring blooming all old wintered bees have died and hives do not have enough foragers to catch crop. All crop are consuned to rear new brood.

It takes 6 weeks to hives, that a bees become a forager from an egg.
A small colony needs more weeks to become a real forager.

 

[Antipodes]

I have fed 30 years pollen and pollen patty to hives to get spring flow. I must conclude that our early summer is too cold to get yeild enough.

If I got 15 kg honey and then it came 2 rainy week, bees ate the crop.

Our spring blooming is abundant, but after dandelion we have 3 weeks summer flower gap.

During our spring blooming all old wintered bees have died and hives do not have enough foragers to catch crop. All crop are consuned to rear new brood.

It takes 6 weeks to hives, that a bees become a forager from an egg.
A small colony needs more weeks to become a real forager.

Have you tried combining two hives to get enough bees?