rotten super !

[froggy]

Hi, I have a rotten super and frames on top of my brood box ( the colony was gifted to me). my question is , how to I transfer the contents of the rotten super ? without losing my Bees. would it be a good idea to put an super underneath the rotten one? would the Bees move the contents of the super and themselves down to the one below? any advice gratefully received Terry.

 

[pargyle]

Hi, I have a rotten super and frames on top of my brood box ( the colony was gifted to me). my question is , how to I transfer the contents of the rotten super ? without losing my Bees. would it be a good idea to put an super underneath the rotten one? would the Bees move the contents of the super and themselves down to the one below? any advice gratefully received Terry.

If the frames are no good just cut the comb out and put it in a feeder - scrape the cappings so the honey is exposed and the bees will clean it up and store it .. I've used a rapid feeder without the cone in it successfully ... If you have a drawn super and put the feeder above it then they might store it in the new super but bees do what bees do and I would not guarantee it. I would wait a bit before doing anything as it's not that warm and the colony will be at it's lowest numbers at present so you really don't want to either disturb their early brood plans or give them too much work to do.

Moving the bees from the existng super is easy - you just need to make a clearer board .. but make sure that the queen is in the brood box and not the super. Once you have them down in the brood box you can remove the rotten super and do what you want with the frames.

 

[Anduril]

Hi, I have a rotten super and frames on top of my brood box ( the colony was gifted to me). my question is , how to I transfer the contents of the rotten super ? without losing my Bees. would it be a good idea to put an super underneath the rotten one? would the Bees move the contents of the super and themselves down to the one below? any advice gratefully received Terry.

If the frames are OK transfer the frames into a new super, but if frames and super are rotten, scrape the frames down to the foundation and feed the scraping back to the bees. Or dilute the scraping with water, strain and feed liquid back to the bees. If it is honey you could always make a mead. Add new super and foundation. If you were to put a new super below the rotten one, place a crownboard between them and they will rob the rotten one thinking it is not part of their hive.
If the super was being used as brood and a half, then you could empty the bees into the brood box place a queen excluder between brood and super until brood in super has emerged, then scape the frames out. Wait for warmer weather.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Hi, I have a rotten super and frames on top of my brood box ( the colony was gifted to me). my question is , how to I transfer the contents of the rotten super ? without losing my Bees. would it be a good idea to put an super underneath the rotten one? would the Bees move the contents of the super and themselves down to the one below? any advice gratefully received Terry.

Be sure the colony is large enough and temperatures are high enough to mess with the colony. Don't forget it still gets cold at night.

If the super has been used only for honey, and only when both you and the bees are ready, use a clearer board to empty the bees from the super and add if they need the space you'll need to add an empty super plus frames below the clearer board. Once the bees are gone you can follow one of the options you've already been given for removing the honey.

If the super has been used as part of a brood and a half, and if the frames are strong enough to shake, you can remove the super and shake all the bees into the brood box. You'll need to make sure there are no bees left on the frames or on the walls of the box, so may need to brush them off the inside of the box. Put a queen excluder above the brood box and then replace the super. The bees will go back through the qe to cover the brood. You'll be able to remove the shallow box, probably using a clearer board to help, in 3 weeks when all worker eggs have developed into adult bees. Probably add a new super at the same time - depending on the state of the colony.