Removing Supers advice.

[Bluebell1985]

I'm a first year beekeeper requesting some pointers on this subject.

Currently my three hives each have between 2-4 supers (and a national full of honey) on them with a combination of uncapped and capped honey.

I was planning on removing these during the first week of August. Is this a sensible time to remove them or premature/late by common standards? My method would be placing a clearer board (with porter bee escape) below the bottom super and leaving for 24 hours.

My hives are 12 frame national poly and all are double brood. Prior to removing the supers do I need to add another super above the brood boxes to provide all the bees to have space or is this not required?

Any tips or advice is very much appreciated, as is constructive criticism.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My method would be placing a clearer board (with porter bee escape) below the bottom super and leaving for 24 hours.

forget porter escapes, make your own rhombus escapes either fix the whole rhombus over a central hole or cut it in half and put the halves on the sides, you need an eke a couple of inches deep below the escape to give the bees room to move down:



If you are going to clear the whole lot down you will definitely need more space for the cleared bees so you need to have an empty shallow (with frames) below the clearer board.

 

[SWHives]

I was wondering myself about the same. Thanks jbm. Would one day before harvest be enough to put the clearer board on, where there are multiple supers to clear? Or is a question of monitoring the progress? Thanks

 

[ericbeaumont]

during the first week of August. Is this a sensible time

There's no right answer to that, but for a start, wait until the bulk is capped.

While you wait, do a random shake test of uncapped combs: hold the frame firmly and horizontally and bring it down over the box, stopping abruptly.

If it falls out like rain you must wait. If not, and a half to two- thirds is capped, you could clear the bees and extract.

Time to buy a honey refractometer, I reckon. Take a reading of some of the uncapped combs, just for curiosity, but when you extract it's useful to take a reading of each bucket and label with percentages.

Anything over 19% is very likely to ferment after a while, but you're safe below that. The regs. specify that it cannot be called honey at 20%, but Bakers' honey.

 Clearer boards work but need two visits. Quicker to shake combs & brush stragglers off with a handful of old cow parsley.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I was wondering myself about the same. Thanks jbm. Would one day before harvest be enough to put the clearer board on, where there are multiple supers to clear? Or is a question of monitoring the progress? Thanks

Rhombus work really well. I put two on yesterday at 10.30 and took the supers off at 6.00, extracted straight away and one wet super going on each colony this morning

 

[Bluebell1985]

forget porter escapes, make your own rhombus escapes either fix the whole rhombus over a central hole or cut it in half and put the halves on the sides, you need an eke a couple of inches deep below the escape to give the bees room to move down:

View attachment 32743View attachment 32744

If you are going to clear the whole lot down you will definitely need more space for the cleared bees so you need to have an empty shallow (with frames) below the clearer board.

Thanks for this. I'll be making something similar to this on my next rest days. Adapting that crown boards that I have and don't use.

 

[Bluebell1985]

There's no right answer to that, but for a start, wait until the bulk is capped.

While you wait, do a random shake test of uncapped combs: hold the frame firmly and horizontally and bring it down over the box, stopping abruptly.

If it falls out like rain you must wait. If not, and a half to two- thirds is capped, you could clear the bees and extract.

Time to buy a honey refractometer, I reckon. Take a reading of some of the uncapped combs, just for curiosity, but when you extract it's useful to take a reading of each bucket and label with percentages.

Anything over 19% is very likely to ferment after a while, but you're safe below that. The regs. specify that it cannot be called honey at 20%, but Bakers' honey.

 Clearer boards work but need two visits. Quicker to shake combs & brush stragglers off with a handful of old cow parsley.

Refractor arrived a few days ago. I'll certainly be giving it a go. Thank you.

 

[OldFarm]

Rhombus work really well. I put two on yesterday at 10.30 and took the supers off at 6.00, extracted straight away and one wet super going on each colony this morning

A question about putting the wets back. No matter what I do the bees do not clear the wets, I just end up with more nectar in the wets. At one point I thought I'd cracked it by just leaving a very small hole in the crown board so they could get in there and tidy up, but no, the success was fleeting. What's the secret? Or are my bees just being difficult?

 

[Erichalfbee]

A question about putting the wets back. No matter what I do the bees do not clear the wets, I just end up with more nectar in the wets. At one point I thought I'd cracked it by just leaving a very small hole in the crown board so they could get in there and tidy up, but no, the success was fleeting. What's the secret? Or are my bees just being difficult?

If nectar is coming in that’s what they do. When the flow has stopped put an empty super on top of your crownboard then the wet one.
Better still store your supers wet over winter

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What's the secret?

don't even bother trying - storing them wet makes much more sense

 

[pargyle]

forget porter escapes, make your own rhombus escapes either fix the whole rhombus over a central hole or cut it in half and put the halves on the sides, you need an eke a couple of inches deep below the escape to give the bees room to move down:

View attachment 32743View attachment 32744

If you are going to clear the whole lot down you will definitely need more space for the cleared bees so you need to have an empty shallow (with frames) below the clearer board.

My usual clearer boards are exactly like this ... but I picked up some extra ones at the Bee Auction a few months ago ...I saw the rhombus bee escapes, they were nicely made, clean and i got the whole pile for £2 ! Didn't really look at them ... I've just dug them out of the back of the shed in readiness and they are only 25mm deep on the rhombus side - mine are always made 50mm.

What do you reckon - use them as they are or spend an hour or two adding some timber to make them deeper ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My usual clearer boards are exactly like this ... but I picked up some extra ones at the Bee Auction a few months ago ...I saw the rhombus bee escapes, they were nicely made, clean and i got the whole pile for £2 ! Didn't really look at them ... I've just dug them out of the back of the shed in readiness and they are only 25mm deep on the rhombus side - mine are always made 50mm.

What do you reckon - use them as they are or spend an hour or two adding some timber to make them deeper ?

I've still got a few clearer boards that are only 25mm deep - as long as you are not stuffing an incredible load of bees down into them, they work fine

 

[pargyle]

I've still got a few clearer boards that are only 25mm deep - as long as you are not stuffing an incredible load of bees down into them, they work fine

I'll use a couple of them and see how I go then ... might get round to adding some strips over winter ...

 

[Garry R]

It always amazes me how many bees will go down and pack into the broodbox when it comes to clearing the supers. If you have a space above the brood box between the clearer board and frames I find they will fill it with comb in no time at all hence don't have more than a largeish bee space there - just enough to keep the rhombus (or is the plural rhombi!!) clear of the frames.

 

[Bluebell1985]

forget porter escapes, make your own rhombus escapes either fix the whole rhombus over a central hole or cut it in half and put the halves on the sides, you need an eke a couple of inches deep below the escape to give the bees room to move down:

View attachment 32743View attachment 32744

If you are going to clear the whole lot down you will definitely need more space for the cleared bees so you need to have an empty shallow (with frames) below the clearer board.

I made boards based on these by adapting parts that I had. They worked perfectly. Only a few bees were left in the boxes a day after putting them on.

 

[fizzle]

I'm a first year beekeeper...

Currently my three hives each have between 2-4 supers (and a national full of honey) on them with a combination of uncapped and capped honey.

Wow, Id say that's a good start. Can you send a few my way lol

 

[Bluebell1985]

Wow, Id say that's a good start. Can you send a few my way lol

I think I've been very lucky and must be surrounded by a variety of rich forage. I'm semi urban/rural. Bees started on OSR which I think gave them plenty of early resources to build comb and expand. Then lots of bramble and clover and all the other wonders that people have in their gardens.

I managed 67.6kg of honey in total. This was all from two nucs that arrived mid April. There was a few splits along the way too. I ended up with 3 hives and 2 nucs from these initial two. I didn't take any honey off the nucs. Each hive was left with plenty of stores for winter too.

First year has gone pretty well I guess.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I think I've been very lucky and must be surrounded by a variety of rich forage. I'm semi urban/rural. Bees started on OSR which I think gave them plenty of early resources to build comb and expand. Then lots of bramble and clover and all the other wonders that people have in their gardens.

I managed 67.6kg of honey in total. This was all from two nucs that arrived mid April. There was a few splits along the way too. I ended up with 3 hives and 2 nucs from these initial two. I didn't take any honey off the nucs. Each hive was left with plenty of stores for winter too.

First year has gone pretty well I guess.

Well done. I’d be pleased with two plus supers off each hive in my first year.

 

[judy12]

This is a query about top bar hives. IK've a friend who wants to take off a little filled comb but he's concerned about their stores and has no idea how to go about feeding them replacement syrup. Nor do I.
Anyone know how how or in what to feed them?

 

[drex]

I made up my own frame feeder, the same idea as you would use in any framed hive, but obviously a different shape. Sometimes if enough space I just sit a tub of syrup ( with straw for them to walk on) at the end of the tbh. Can always just chuck in a lump of fondant. Small rapid feeder can be used too.