Removing super from below

[herefordshirehoney]

Got an interesting one (well for me it is!). One of my colonies that is on langstroth poly at the end of winter ended up leaving a super underneath without a QX over winter as I was too late taking it off. I now need to start thinking about when to move it above and add a QX.

On last inspection Saturday (pretty much looked at most frames apart as temp was good enough) they had a few good frames of stores in the brood box infact on the end frames they may have even moved from stores from downstairs as it was newly capped. Downstairs in the super 8-9 frames was around half capped still.

The queen seems to have gone into overdrive already as lots of yellow pollen coming in (right on top of OSR but not sure if this what it was). The bees where everywhere in this colony lots of emerging bees so might have been the crossover still between winter and new bees. I did get a nip but was not using smoke so my own fault otherwise lovely and calm.

So that gives some background, as I dont know whether to stores are sugar syrup when do I switch it or shall I just add another super on top for OSR and leave it on the bottom for the moment... (dont really like this idea though as they may just move it up). I could bruise the stores with the hive tool to try and encourage them to move some upstairs but that could end up congesting the broodnest. I have not put any new brood foundations in yet though or drone frame so I will definitely use one good store for that.

 

[enrico]

If you are on OSR, and there is no brood in the super, take it off by using a bee escape, store until autumn. Do this before they start storing OSR in it.
That's what I would do anyway!
Put a new super over the bb for the OSR, make sure the queen is not in the old super.
E

 

[YorkshireBees]

Ask your self a few simple questions:

1. Do they have enough stores in the BB to survive without the stores in the super below?
If the answer is yes then remove the super below.

2. Do you know for certain what is stored in the super?
If you are sure there is no sugar syrup or that the super was not on the hive during any varroa treatment (tainted honey) then you could place the same super on top (above QE). More likely if you are not certain then another super of empty (preferably drawn) comb is the better option.

As enrico said, if you have enough kit, you can always use that super for feed later in the year.