nadir whilst feeding?

[Cuckmere couple]

i havent nadired supers before but have a couple half full and half capped so thought i'd nadir them

have just taken apiguard off and usually feed now

can you feed whilst nadiring a super or is there a risk of back filling the super?

 

[madasafish]

I nadir every year. I feed and forget.
In Spring supers are empty.
What happens inbetween I neither know nor care about.

 

[Erichalfbee]

What I would do where you are is bruise the capped frames. Nadir. Reduce the entrance. Remove nadired shallow in a week then bang in the feed if they need it.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

I nadir every year. I feed and forget.
In Spring supers are empty.
What happens inbetween I neither know nor care about.

thanks....so you do nadir and feed simultaneously

 

[Erichalfbee]

Madasafish’s solution is easier.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I don’t like to leave them because I have 14x12s. The bees move up and abandon the empty frames leaving a good few mouldy.

 

[hemo]

I don't pfaff with nadiring, I find it simpler to extract anything and then feed it back with any main feed if required.

 

[user 20297]

I don't pfaff with nadiring, I find it simpler to extract anything and then feed it back with any main feed if required.

I have found that with the slightest bit of honey in the feed, the bees get very excited and I can never be sure if they're being robbed.
When I put half-emptied, hard to extract or extracted frames above them with restricted access from below, they sometimes start to refill or redistribute the honey in the frames, apparently using them as short to mid-term storage.

I haven't tried nadiring as I'm concerned about the potential for attracting "robbers" who might otherwise have left the hive alone. I have very few of these surplus frames, so I'm just storing them safely for next year.

A cold and neglected, empty, nadired box of frames may go mouldy over Winter, but if it's left there, but won't the bees naturally work down into it in the Spring, thus giving a bit of leeway on space at that point when they are expanding and when they may need an additional box? I know that would be a disaster for those who find the management of mismatched brood-boxes not to their liking, but it makes sense to me.

 

[madasafish]

Madasafish’s solution is easier.

I am lazy and old.
No mould in my Lang jumbo frames as hives are well insulated and on stands so not on wet undergrowth

Seriously, I believe in KISS.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

I have found that with the slightest bit of honey in the feed, the bees get very excited and I can never be sure if they're being robbed.
When I put half-emptied, hard to extract or extracted frames above them with restricted access from below, they sometimes start to refill or redistribute the honey in the frames, apparently using them as short to mid-term storage.

I haven't tried nadiring as I'm concerned about the potential for attracting "robbers" who might otherwise have left the hive alone. I have very few of these surplus frames, so I'm just storing them safely for next year.

A cold and neglected, empty, nadired box of frames may go mouldy over Winter, but if it's left there, but won't the bees naturally work down into it in the Spring, thus giving a bit of leeway on space at that point when they are expanding and when they may need an additional box? I know that would be a disaster for those who find the management of mismatched brood-boxes not to their liking, but it makes sense to me.

yes, agree...keen to avoid brood and a half!

 

[user 20297]

yes, agree...keen to avoid brood and a half!

It doesn't actually bother me; once you've started I feel you have more flexibility rather than it hindering. For instance, I have some boxes of empty, brooded, shallow frames that I will be putting back on certain hives at the first expansion next year. In my circumstances I think a deep box wuuld be excessive and if I simply used a shallow box of "clean", drawn frames I would fee impelled to use a QX in order to preserve them.

As the brood-nest contracts later in the season, if that first shallow retains some brood, pollen and "bee-bread" at extraction time I will have smaller, compromised frames. which will possibly be more evenly and consistently brooded.

I can understand how people who have prolific bees or a large number of hives, see thngs differently.