Shoud I add more supers?

[bobba]

Hello,

I have 2 hives that I am unsure if I should add another super to.

All hives national.

Hive 1..

Its brood + 1/2 with 3 supers. The bottom super is 80% full, just a tiny bit of brood in the middle. The upper 2 are above a QE, They were both full, so were removed and replaced on the 16th. One was put on wet, the other was all new foundation. Looking today, the foundation is all fully drawn, but nothing much has been capped in either super. But every frame in this hive is stuffed with bees. It was actually bearding today, so I wonder if they need more space. (OMF btw)


Hive 2

The second Hive is a swarm I boxed on 11/5/20.

I added 1/2 brood on 26/5/20.

Then added a wet super above qe on 16/6/20.

Looking today there is some nectar in the frames, no capping. Is it too late in the year to give them a second super? Or should I put one on. I only have supers of new foundation. I have included a picture of this super.

So what should I do next to these hives, and what should I have done differently?

Finlay If there is anyone from Hampshire who can explain roughly what times of year I should generally be looking to add/remove supers that would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Ian123]

By the sounds of it I would add a super to both. Half broods are a pain avoid if possible, as you are already there pull any frames of honey or nectar that are in these half’s and replace with empty frames. Then place your new and half filled box above queen excluder with empty frames to the centre. With good weather and a bit of luck your biggest hive may even require more space next week!!! When can you expect to pull the honey off, when the main flows over I would guess for you that’s late July onwards. Avoid half broods if possible!

 

[SuperHoney]

Hello,



I have 2 hives that I am unsure if I should add another super to.



All hives national.



Hive 1..



Its brood + 1/2 with 3 supers. The bottom super is 80% full, just a tiny bit of brood in the middle. The upper 2 are above a QE, They were both full, so were removed and replaced on the 16th. One was put on wet, the other was all new foundation. Looking today, the foundation is all fully drawn, but nothing much has been capped in either super. But every frame in this hive is stuffed with bees. It was actually bearding today, so I wonder if they need more space. (OMF btw)





Hive 2



The second Hive is a swarm I boxed on 11/5/20.



I added 1/2 brood on 26/5/20.



Then added a wet super above qe on 16/6/20.



Looking today there is some nectar in the frames, no capping. Is it too late in the year to give them a second super? Or should I put one on. I only have supers of new foundation. I have included a picture of this super.



So what should I do next to these hives, and what should I have done differently?



Finlay If there is anyone from Hampshire who can explain roughly what times of year I should generally be looking to add/remove supers that would be really helpful.



Thanks in advance for any help.

I would put supers on both. Depending on the honey flow and flowers in your area you could be getting honey well into August. I live in Poole, Dorset and we have alot of Ivy near by which flowers late in the year.

As far as timing goes for adding supers...providing you don't split your colonies down into several nucs, you can collect spring honey. Also, down here we have a bit of a nectar dearth in June.

All in all think you've done well!

Side note, I originally started with brood and a half. I quickly transitioned to 14x12 as the inspections are quicker and easier.

Hope some of that helps!



Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Many people put fresh supers on way too late. bees don't just patiently wait after they've filled one super, for the beekeeper to add another - they just swarm.
You should add a shallow (whether under or over) at the latest when the existing super is nearing half full - I prefer just to say add another when the super is full of bees, not honey.

 

[bobba]

Thanks everyone.

My 1/2 broods are all on DN5 and supers are manley. So frame swapping between 1/2s and supers could be a problem.

"All in all think you've done well!" - I take no credit for that, its been a combination of luck and the good collective advice I have received on this forum.

"Half broods are a pain avoid if possible" - I know there are good and bad things about 1/2s. But so far I quite like using them. I am on my 1st full year of bee keeping, so have never tried another way. I may experiment with a deep next year ad see how I get on

So based on what you guys have said I will add another super to each hive tonight.

I will have a look through the 1/2s and count up the frames of honey. There was some in there but I had not intended to take any from the 1/2s. Partly because the 1/2 was on the big hive over winter so could contain sugar syrup, and partly because I like to leave some real honey for the bees. I may take some honey frames and replace with foundation, or spin them and pop straight back in the hive depending on how many I find.

But massive thanks for confirming that I should probably add some more supers. I feel a bit more confident I will be doing the right thing.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

"Half broods are a pain avoid if possible" - I know there are good and bad things about 1/2s. But so far I quite like using them. I am on my 1st full year of bee keeping, so have never tried another way. I may experiment with a deep next year ad see how I get on

You are using deeps in your brood and a half - a 14x12 is a jumbo, which, like brood and a half is the devil's work
As you are already using a two box system, just go straight for double brood, much more versatile system

 

[bobba]

"a 14x12 is a jumbo, which, like brood and a half is the devil's work" - haha.

I have never heard of anyone running double brood before so did not know this was an option.

I wanted to use 12x14s when I started. But the only nucs available were on standard, so I pretty much just stumbled into the B+1/2 system.

I have never handled jumbos before, but am intimidated by the size and potential weight of the frames. So I like the idea of double brood.

So thank you for the suggestion, its definitely something I will look into.

Anyway,its time to make up some frames and get some more supers on the hives.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Nothing wrong with 14x12's, I've used nothing else.

My plan for putting on supers is when 'it feels right' which is a bit subjective. Whatever it is I do it isn't working as I| have had quigte a few swarms this year. Next year I am going to change tack and before I think a hive needs one super I'm going to add two at a time and see if that works any better.

 

[bobba]

I started the year with 2 hives. They were both brood + 1/2 of good strength.

I was unsure exactly what to do, so Hive-1 got 2 supers and Hive-2 got 1 super.

Hive-1 has turned into my 4 super honey monster. 25kg of honey so far and possibly more to come.

Hive-2, unintentionally became hives 3 and 4 after hanging out in my neighbors tree for a bit and enjoying a short journey in a cardboard box. Hive-2 is in a bit of a sorry state, depleted after 2 swarms, and I think it may be queen-less.

So I am going to be trying 2 supers early on all strong hives next year.

Since adding the extra Super to hive-1, they stopped bearding right away.

I put hive-1 on a new stand the day after adding the super so had a little peep. The super had 8 foundation, 1 drawn comb and 1 starter strip. The drawn comb was already packed with nectar both sides. All foundation was being worked on, and the starter strip had some nice shells of wax under construction.

To my eye there were still a lot of bees in every box.

So I feel confident that adding a super to H1 was the right thing to do.

I will peep in the other Super at next inspection, don't want to disturb before.

But thanks again as I feel your advice definitely pushed me to make the right decision.