No honey in Supers

[apple_inut]

I'm new to beekeeping, this is our second year but we didn't do much our first since we had just sold our house and were moving. So this probably should be our "first" year. I put a super on quite awhile ago and there are a few bees roaming around but they are not drawing anything out. I then remembered that a friend told me to reverse the hive bodies and we did that back in May. I only now read that after 3 or 4 weeks your supposed to return the hive to its normal configuration. My first question is should I return them to "normal" this late in the season and two is this reversing the reason I'm not getting honey in my supers? Thanks for your help.

 

[Adam]

My first question is should I return them to "normal" this late in the season and two is this reversing the reason I'm not getting honey in my supers? Thanks for your help.

Yes, (probably the cause of no honey) and now the flow has finished you'll have to wait until next year now I think. It's not the most conventional advice that you've received in my opinion. I'm pulling my supers off this week to take the honey so I'd suggest you don't bother swapping it, just remove it altogether.

Adam

 

[Susan1]

What do you mean by hive reversing? I dont think I have heard of this.

 

[Polyanwood]

Back luck apple_inut. You don't say where you are, but most people don't seem to have much of a flow at the moment. Hopefully next Spring, when the nights are getting warmer and the flow is increasing you should put the super back on. Suggest you spray the frames with syrup before you put the super back on top of the BB, without a QE at first, to encourage them to draw it.

That should be the start of your honey crop.

 

[Peter Cox]

What do you mean by hive reversing? I dont think I have heard of this.

Swapping the top and bottom boxes.
Here in the cold NE US it's something you would typically do in spring.
We typically overwinter in 2 deep brood boxes and through the winter the cluster will move from the bottom box to the top box. In Spring you'd reverse the boxes so the cluster is once more at the bottom of the hive and then through the season they'd build up stores in the top deep ready for the next winter.

 

[Midland Beek]

Nothing much to fill supers until spring 2011. Your bees will mostly be storing honey on a reducing brood nest - so called, back-filling.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I assume you have a double brood? Even with the brood chambers full with bees and honey, I would have expected some activity upstairs unless the weather was really poor.
Did the colony build up in the Spring. How many frames of brood and stores did you have, say a month ago and now? Did it swarm.

The season is over now for many of us. Supers off and extracted then back on the hives to be cleaned out. Then Apiguard. Then build-up in stores for the winter. If your super is empty, then it can be removed now I would expect. well, not now as in this moment. It's raining stair rods outside

 

[Heather]

If the bees fail to draw out the super above the brood- remove the queen excluder for about 10 days - then whip back in if they have moved up.
But this is a job for next year now....They don't need to be messed about as they will soon be preparing to store for winter. Boost the brood now not the honey supply.

I have heard quite a few mutterings this year of bees reluctant to draw out the foundation - are the producers practising economy and using less wax?? - It does seem a little thinner and more pliable- I presumed it was the warmer weather.