Removing supers

[malgreen]

Hi, have a hive with double brood box and 3 full supers so thinking of harvesting honey. I have an extra made up super so what exactly is the procedure. Do I just remove say two and leave one for the bees? probably very elementary I know but can someone run through what they would do. Does the empty super go immediately above the qx and below the full super ( if I left them one) or can I take all three off. Also what is the best way to remove all the bees from the supers before I decide to extract the honey. Thanks.

 

[drex]

Depends on local forage availability and what stores are in the brood box. If you expect good forage to be available over next couple of months or they have some stores, I would take all three, if it is all ready. I see you run double brood, so stores unlikely to be a problem. Put on an empty super , above QX and below clearer, to give the bees somewhere to go, when you put on your clearer board. I use rhombus escape boards, home made. They are quick and efficient. Provided the springs are set right in porter bee escapes, they do work, but are slower and not so effective ( in my experience)

 

[Beefriendly]

As Drex says, although I tend to clear three into 2 empty supers. Depends on how fast you want them cleared. At out apiaries I tend to shake and brush ( shock horror) as it takes little time to clear a super...about 5 minutesSaves me a return trip that way.

 

[enrico]

Whereas I do it differently. I own my own extractor which makes life easier
I put he heaviest super on the top. Clear it overnight with a clearer board. Extract the same day. Add the wet super to the bottom of the supers on the same hive the same evening. If there are any unripe frames I leave them in the box.
I can do that as and when I want to. If there are other hives with full frames I may take the full frames out of several hives to make a full box replacing with wet frames that have been extracted.
It is easier for me this way and the bees always have room. I would never take all the honey boxes off forcing them down to a single box unless it was absolutely necessary.
E

 

[Erichalfbee]

I use rhombus clearer boards. Put the empty super over QX and clear supers into that. Extract and put one back?
Capped supers usually have few bees on them so you can just brush them off

 

[BMH]

Whereas I do it differently. I own my own extractor which makes life easier
I put he heaviest super on the top. Clear it overnight with a clearer board. Extract the same day. Add the wet super to the bottom of the supers on the same hive the same evening. If there are any unripe frames I leave them in the box.
I can do that as and when I want to. If there are other hives with full frames I may take the full frames out of several hives to make a full box replacing with wet frames that have been extracted.
It is easier for me this way and the bees always have room. I would never take all the honey boxes off forcing them down to a single box unless it was absolutely necessary.
E

Does it not become tiresome cleaning the extractor so often?

 

[Barbarian]

I have several hives and use a single stack clearer system where upto 5 supers from different hives are cleared without problems.
The set up is as follows --- stand a little away from hives -- a temporary floor (open front and back) -- a clearer board with an exit downwards -- stack of supers -- cleare board with exit upwards -- a reversed temp floor with a brick on top. The bees can exit at the top or bottom of the stack. After 24 hours the supers can be taken away.

I find there is less lifting from an active hive.

 

[Vortex]

If you have 3 full capped supers, then you should already have a fourth partially filled one.. If they're not capped then are you sure the honey is ripe (<20% water, ideally 18%)? If they're not capped then you need to add a fourth anyway.. if its foundation and you want if drawn then it should go over the brood nest where it's warmest.. i.e above the QX but under the other supers..

 

[madasafish]

Does it not become tiresome cleaning the extractor so often?

Take one hose with cold water, and hose out interior on a dry day wearing wellies and a waterproof apron.. Takes approx 30 minutes if done promptly after extracting.

I extract 3-4 supers at a time as lifting full supers in inspections =pain.

( I also start selling honey in June so shift stock quickly have minimal storage requirements and a healthy cashflow.. Much easier than doing it all at once.. (If I were a business I might/would do it entirely differently)

 

[enrico]

Does it not become tiresome cleaning the extractor so often?

Not really, just a quick wash down. I have an area set aside for extracting with a shower unit in a wet room that I rinse the extractor out with. Takes a couple of minutes. Hot air gun. So no sticky cappings
All clean and easy.
E

 

[SWEET]

Leaving all mine on till mid aug then using a rhombus board (works really well)

 

[BMH]

Not really, just a quick wash down. I have an area set aside for extracting with a shower unit in a wet room that I rinse the extractor out with. Takes a couple of minutes. Hot air gun. So no sticky cappings

All clean and easy.

E

Sounds like a great set up.

Last time I cleaned an extractor it took an age. Must have been doing it wrong!

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[BMH]

Take one hose with cold water, and hose out interior on a dry day wearing wellies and a waterproof apron.. Takes approx 30 minutes if done promptly after extracting.

I extract 3-4 supers at a time as lifting full supers in inspections =pain.

( I also start selling honey in June so shift stock quickly have minimal storage requirements and a healthy cashflow.. Much easier than doing it all at once.. (If I were a business I might/would do it entirely differently)

See this is my issue.

30 mins on the extractor.

30 mins on the uncapping table.

30 mins general cleaning.

Driving to and from extraction facility - 30 mins

Collecting supers - 60 mins (once cleared for couple of hives)

That's 3 hrs of added time for each extraction so definitely easier for me to batch it up where possible. My missus would kill me if I did that once a week.

I totally get it if you are time rich, or want to extract by super to get the different forages into jars etc

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[Millet]

Sounds like a great set up.

Last time I cleaned an extractor it took an age. Must have been doing it wrong!

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The extractor i have takes me around 15 min to clean..i take it in the garden and half fill it with cold water and then crank it up for 5 min's..i then open the gate valve and let it empty while rinsing it with the hose pipe..i find it fairly easy which i have been doing every week.

 

[BMH]

The extractor i have takes me around 15 min to clean..i take it in the garden and half fill it with cold water and then crank it up for 5 min's..i then open the gate valve and let it empty while rinsing it with the hose pipe..i find it fairly easy which i have been doing every week.

Yeah. I've definitely been doing it wrong!

Will try that next time.

Cold water? Any detergent?

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[Millet]

Yeah. I've definitely been doing it wrong!

Will try that next time.

Cold water? Any detergent?

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I did use detergent to start with but i did not like the way it was killing all the worms in the ground so i stopped using it..and to be honest from my experience i see no difference not using detergent it comes up just as clean using cold water..

 

[BMH]

I did use detergent to start with but i did not like the way it was killing all the worms in the ground so i stopped using it..and to be honest from my experience i see no difference not using detergent it comes up just as clean using cold water..

Ok

Cold water it is...

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[thibault]

Why cold water?

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[Beefriendly]

Power washer...about 5 minutes.

 

[madasafish]

Why cold water?

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If you melt the wax, it solidifies over everything..and is a pia to remove... As long as the extractor has not been left unwashed for weeks (and the honey solidified,), then cold water works well...