Removing supers after artificial swarm into a nuc...

[Pmatthews]

Hi,

I did artificial swarms into nucs on two of my colonies on Wednesday two weeks ago.

I had a look at them on Sunday and it looks like they have been filling the supers pretty quickly. One has two supers on it and was a pretty prolific colony before I did the split nearly refilling a previously extracted super in a week. The other has one super that was filling nicely. It has rained quite a bit this week and the OSR and hawthorn is nearly over so I'm not sure whether they will have filled them up any more or even depleted them.

I'm aware I will need to extract them soon though as they will start the crystallise but am unsure what I should do afterwards.

When I did the split I removed one frame of stores along with two frames of brood and put them into the nuc and don't know whether they have drawn out/ filled the foundation I put into the Q- broodbox at the time. However, I suspect stores are limited in the brood box. (Should I have a look or leave them be?)

Once I have extracted the supers, should I put them back on but i'm worried they then might not have enough stores if the OSR/ hawthorn has finished?

Should I remove the supers and feed them? However, wont the brood box then be very congested and increase the liklihood of the virgin queen swarming?

Should I leave a few frames of honey in the supers to give them enough stores to get through the next month and accept this might crystallise?

There is a field of beans in flower nearby but it seems debateable whether this provides any nectar for honeybees...

I'd love to hear what everyone else does/ recommends in this situation...

Philip

 

[stevebrowning]

Extract the supers and keep the honey, check how much stores the hives have and if they have plenty put the supers back on, if low on stores then give a little feed.

 

[drex]

I suggest you have a look at how many bees you have in the hives, how much space in the brood and what stores are in the brood. That will tell you what you need to do. Did my extraction today. Plenty of osr round here, not quite finished but about 20% crystallised in the colonies that had been on the rape. When you put clearer boards on, the bees from the supers need somewhere to go. To avoid undue congestion in the brood, I usually put a new super, with drawn comb, under the clearer.
When I have extracted I put the wet supers on top over a crown board with the porter escape holes covered to leave a bee space gap. I spray water onto the crystallised combs. The bees think the honey remnants are outside the hive and bring it down into the new supers. After a few days the extracted supers are clean and dry and go back into store.
Never fed in the summer yet, but I have a good location with fields and gardens to forage

 

[Pmatthews]

Thanks very much - that sounds like a good idea. I haven't got any drawn super frames so will put in some foundation while I extract and then swap them for the super afterwards.

Do you then have a brood and a half for the whole of the summer?

Thanks

Philip

 

[drex]

Depends where you put your QX! I run double brood.