how to encourage capping in supers

[Gower]

in order to encourage full supers to be capped, is it best to place new, empty supers under or above the full one which you want capped? just about got a full super and have put an empty super with equal split of drawn frames/new foundation above it, but i got to wondering which is the best way round?

many thanks

 

[MandF]

in order to encourage full supers to be capped, is it best to place new, empty supers under or above the full one which you want capped? just about got a full super and have put an empty super with equal split of drawn frames/new foundation above it, but i got to wondering which is the best way round?

many thanks

The general advice is to always leave the first super in place, then place new supers on this one and under whatever else is on. I think this is primarily because of the arc of empty cells the bees leave for the brood cluster in the super immediately next to the brood box(es).

In my limited experience, if you put a new super underneath too early, they are just as likely to move stores down closer to the brood nest, incl uncapping the capped stuff. So my inclination is to leave the super where it is as long as possible until/unless it is almost full (and hopefully mostly capped), and only then add another.

Having said that, just because it is uncapped, it doesnt meant it isnt honey! You need a refractometer to test a few of the uncapped cells - you might find its all below 20% anyway, and even if a small patch is above, when you extract the whole frame the average will be under.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Lot of pollen in the super next to the brood at the moment so I've put the new super on top (as it says on the tin! )

 

[Cars]

It has been recommended to me that I put the next empty super on top of the crown board. The idea being that they will continue to fill / cap the lower super, but have somewhere to overflow to when they are ready. I currently have two hives with a supper above the crown board and a few bees coming through, when most of the lower one is full I'll move the crown board up.

 

[Midland Beek]

Sometimes bees do not cap because the honey is not ripe, but this is not always the case.

 

[Arfermo]

It has been recommended to me that I put the next empty super on top of the crown board. The idea being that they will continue to fill / cap the lower super, but have somewhere to overflow to when they are ready. I currently have two hives with a supper above the crown board and a few bees coming through, when most of the lower one is full I'll move the crown board up.

Frankly that's plain daft imho. With OSR around, filling supers ican be very rapid and sticking 2 supers on as foraging begins makes best sense.

 

[oliver90owner]

Frankly that's plain daft imho.

Frankly, it's daft because the crownboard goes at the top, just beneath the roof. With a proper crownboard, bees will not be able to access anything above.

Hives were designed a long time ago and it is amazing that people want to try to re-invent them so often. In a good OSR year I can imagine the roof being very sticky and comb being made to secure it to the super below! Just crazy!