Removing Super

[Bill_J]

This is my second year so I'm after some advice. I'm based in Northern Ireland and it's been a bad year with the weather and relative lack of a decent honey flow. I'll be lucky to get a single super from my two hives. I STILL haven't been able to take the super off.....looked in today (15th Sep) and, although each frame in the super is heavy, I'd estimate less than one third of each frame is capped honey. The rest is uncapped. My question is...am I leaving it too late to remove the super? Or should I persevere for another week or two then remove what I can and feed? As for treating the hives for Verroa...I seem to have been lucky....done a count over the past few weeks and very, very few so I'm considering not treating this year as both hives are pretty strong in numbers.

 

[Speybee]

Perhaps have a wee look at the helpful Thread started by Enrico about “Uncapped stores and what to do with them for beginners?”

 

[Murox]

This is my second year so I'm after some advice. I'm based in Northern Ireland and it's been a bad year with the weather and relative lack of a decent honey flow. I'll be lucky to get a single super from my two hives. I STILL haven't been able to take the super off.....looked in today (15th Sep) and, although each frame in the super is heavy, I'd estimate less than one third of each frame is capped honey. The rest is uncapped. My question is...am I leaving it too late to remove the super? Or should I persevere for another week or two then remove what I can and feed? As for treating the hives for Verroa...I seem to have been lucky....done a count over the past few weeks and very, very few so I'm considering not treating this year as both hives are pretty strong in numbers.

I suggest you check water content with a refractometer first of all then decide what to do with the stores. (as Speybee suggested maybe). I urge you strongly to treat for varroa asap. You want healthy disease free bee for overwintering, don't risk it.

 

[enrico]

If you are going to use it yourself I would extract it and use it. Get a refractometer for Xmas. Don't know how I managed without one! Meanwhile before you put the frames in the spinner give them a good shake flat side down. If nectar floods out then feed it back to the bees. If most of it stays in then spin it out. Your first year honey won't last long anyway. Use if for cooking and all sorts! Don't forget your bees will need a good feed and you want to start that asap