Onto the next problem

[enrico]

If the supers are that heavy then they have honey in. Do a bit of organising and take out all the frames that are capped and take the honey off. There is no reason to wait until the end of any nectar flow. It means you may have to set up extraction and clean up twice in the year but that's better than a hernia. I take supers off as they fill up and give wet frames back to bees it seems to encourage them to go get more as there stores have been depleted!
E

 

[kazmcc]

If the supers are that heavy then they have honey in. Do a bit of organising and take out all the frames that are capped and take the honey off. There is no reason to wait until the end of any nectar flow. It means you may have to set up extraction and clean up twice in the year but that's better than a hernia. I take supers off as they fill up and give wet frames back to bees it seems to encourage them to go get more as there stores have been depleted!
E

Ideally I would like to have extracted already and given them wet frames, it would save them time and energy. I've just had to but a new super on with undrawn frames, which I was a bit peeved about, but there was no other option. I have just recieved an email from a friend nearby who is buying an extractor. If I can wait until September then he'll let me use it.

How much should I be inspecting now. I've not done a full inspection since I saw the unmated queen. I'm just wondering whether to wait until September or have a go at extracting it myself at home. It will depend on how often I need to inspect though.

 

[Skyhook]

So, would there be any issue with it being off the stand? I imagine the OMF would get blocked, so if I put it on 4 bricks would that be ok?

Bees. Who'd have 'em hey?

Don't think anyones answered this so- yes, as long as there's a few inches under the hive that'lll be OK.

 

[xgeordie]

Hi Kaz

This is an old trick and some may frown but anyway here it is. When working in a farm shop years ago the owner would arrive fresh from the London markets loaded with various veg etc. We would begin unloading the lorries. We would always start with the bags of spuds. 200 or more. The last thing we unloaded was huge crates of huge colliflowers. They did however weigh less than the spuds per bag. This was all done by hand.

I swear by the time we got to the collies I could lift the crate with one finger and heft it over my head. It's because the muscles had enlarged and prepared for the weight of spuds. It was quite funny and felt a little odd. So just find something heavier than the super and lift it for a few minutes at arms length and then the super will feel like a pillow.

Sounds rubbish but it does work. Good luck.

I agree Storm. That advice sounds rubbish.