Positioning additional supers

[angeJ]

I have 2 supers on my hive and suspect I may need to add another today. It will have to be just foundation but I think I have read it should go below the other 2 and above the brood box. Is that correct and if so why?

 

[meetballuk]

Correct goes under makes them feel like they have more room immediately and keeps capping clean in higher suppers.
some say encourages capping of higher ones as it would be in a natural hive.

 

[itma]

Foundation is best put directly above the brood - wax-making needs warmth, and that's where the warmth is.


Take the opportunity to do a little frame rearrangement.
Put a couple of drawn but uncapped frames into the centre of the new box and add the spare new frames to the outside of the well-worked box.


In future years, you may become more casual about where you put additional supers containing already-drawn comb …




I am of the opinion that new beekeepers with brand-new boxes containing new frames and undrawn foundation should be encouraged to get the things slightly 'used' before they are needed. (Bees prefer bee-used to new!)
Putting brand-new boxes under the brood box (above the floor) for a couple of weeks will (if nothing else) get them 'traffic-ed' by bees, and smelling like part of their hive. This will make it more readily accepted (and used) by the bees.

 

[Dishmop]

I am of the opinion that new beekeepers with brand-new boxes containing new frames and undrawn foundation should be encouraged to get the things slightly 'used' before they are needed. (Bees prefer bee-used to new!)
Putting brand-new boxes under the brood box (above the floor) for a couple of weeks will (if nothing else) get them 'traffic-ed' by bees, and smelling like part of their hive. This will make it more readily accepted (and used) by the bees.

Well worth remembering and also somewhere to store spare boxes..

 

[ratcatcher]

I tend to put spare supers onto one of my bigger hives, letting them draw out the foundation a little and giving it that "bee" smell

the large hive at the moment is a commercial, but has a mixture of commercial, national and rose supers, earmarked for other hives

 

[angeJ]

Thanks for all your advice - and makes sense when you know why

 

[Swarm]

Foundation is best put directly above the brood - wax-making needs warmth, and that's where the warmth is.


Take the opportunity to do a little frame rearrangement.
Put a couple of drawn but uncapped frames into the centre of the new box and add the spare new frames to the outside of the well-worked box.

Agree with the first part but I'd be more inclined to introduce foundation to the centre of the super, while arranging uncapped comb either side, they draw central frames far more readily.

 

[REDWOOD]

+1

 

[itma]

Agree with the first part but I'd be more inclined to introduce foundation to the centre of the super, while arranging uncapped comb either side, they draw central frames far more readily.

They do indeed draw the central frames (directly above the brood nest) most readily.

But on my poly hives, the outer frames do get drawn and worked pretty well.


Something I've been playing at on one of my hives (and it seems to be working well) is giving plenty of super volume, with foundation frames being added at the outside of all the boxes, and drawn comb being moved down into the new box, so that I am effectively adding tall 'slices' of foundation frames rather than adding a horizontal slab in one box. OK, its more work shuffling frames when adding a super, but it seems to give the bees more control of their expansion (read that as no attempts at swarming on that hive).

 

[madasafish]

They do indeed draw the central frames (directly above the brood nest) most readily.

But on my poly hives, the outer frames do get drawn and worked pretty well.

.

On my poly lang, the outer frames are drawn first (foundationless)...I then move them to the middle and put the undrawn outers to the edge..

(The warmer edge is drawn first.. SE facing..)