Stores from BB to Supers .

[Eric knockalt]

Is there a way to have the bees move the stored honey in BB frames to my super frames or will the bees do this themselves when they need the room ,i have a double brood with plenty stores and the supers are being filled slower than the brood box ,maybe i,m just looking for quick result to soon ,if i put one of the brood boxes above a crown board would this encourage them to store in supers below ?

Eric.

 

[enrico]

If the stores are capped bruise them by running your hive tool over the cappings, they will usually move them then, but......I would take them out, give them fresh frames. Give them the stores back in the autumn for inter food.

 

[sandysman]

I posted a similar question a couple of days ago. Finman suggested taking out the full frames, and putting them above the supers separated by a crown board with a slight gap so they rob it back down into the supers, exchanging the full frames with foundation. I have done this and so far one frame has been emptied. I placed an extra super on to accommodate any extra honey. Not sure what the result is yet but I will let you know after Saturdays inspection.
Andy

 

[einsteinagogo]

I posted a similar question a couple of days ago. Finman suggested taking out the full frames, and putting them above the supers separated by a crown board with a slight gap so they rob it back down into the supers, exchanging the full frames with foundation. I have done this and so far one frame has been emptied. I placed an extra super on to accommodate any extra honey. Not sure what the result is yet but I will let you know after Saturdays inspection.
Andy

Andy

did you have to bruise the frames you put above the supers for them to rob?

Andy

 

[Spikedog]

I did as sandysman outlined ... small hole (two pencil width) atop of Crownboard but the little beggers while they went up did not take it down in two weeks ... moved it off to Nucs ... but I did not bruise it - is this necessary?

 

[itma]

One problem with "robbing down" is that the bees don't have a descriptive dance for "its up there" - the result of which is that the message that the colony gets is "there's something to rob and its quite close" - which can mean that other hives (and especially nucs) may be intensively robbed.

 

[sandysman]

Andy

did you have to bruise the frames you put above the supers for them to rob?

Andy

I did do, yes. But I also take on board the other points raised here and I also like Enrico's idea of using them as stores.
Like you I found that they were filling up the brood box as there was a newly mated queen that has just started to lay. Maybe a cross between Finman's and Enrico's idea would be best, remove the stores until late summer/autumn and give them foundation to drawer new cells. That way I would guess they need to build new cells for the queen to lay and any nectar will go in the supers.
However I am sure someone will be along in a minute and shoot that idea down in flames.
Andy

 

[Hawklord]

Are we now saying the crown board needs a hole in it?

 

[itma]

Are we now saying the crown board needs a hole in it?

If you want to set up robbing, use your feeder board (the one with the hole), and reduce the hole with a bit of ply or plastic.

 

[Finman]

.
Good heavens guys!

If the bees have stored the honey into one frame what a heck the must move to another frames. Be flexible and use your brains!!!! Please!

The queen has not been a good layer and the size of colony is what is it.

Now honey is in brood combs, like I have now in every hives!. I lift honey frames up and give to queen empty combs to lay.

If bees move from comb to another comb, they use 24% from that honey in moving work. Why? For nothing.

You have douple brood. Now you pick most full farmes and put them over the excluder that bees rippen tha honey and cap it.

Then you give foundations or those unused super combs to be layed.

If flow continues, they fill again the combs with honey. But that is nothing. You get honey and some day the flow ceases and the queen starts to lay.
Then you have extracted brood combs and everything is OK.

That is exactly what is happening in my hives. The flow is heavy and the queen has not much space to lay. but it is date 15.7. Summer is long after that to do new bees.

And nectar takes its time to rippen. Don't play with water content. It is not worth doing.
.

 

[Finman]

.
I just took a langstroth box from a hive. In May it was second box in the hive and full of brood, but now it was topmost and 25 kg honey. The hive has now 7 boxes.

The queen lays there somewhere. I do not mind to know where.
The hive has brought now about 100 kg honey. Important is that they carry honey into the hive and do not leave it in flowers. I took yesterday 55kg capped honey away.

Everything was mere mesh. But sweet mesh.

The hive is same size and flyes on same area as balance hive. Balance brought today 6.8 kg. in 4 days it has brought 27 kg. Don't disturb them then.

I have 4 box hives too. They are real mesh.
.

 

[sandysman]

I think what Finman in saying is, put a brood body above the queen excluder and place the full frames in it, using it as a super. I have just checked my spinner and it will hold two frames from the brood body. Might change my configuration on my next inspection.
Andy

 

[Hawklord]

Finman, are all your boxes the same size or do you use smaller boxes for supers?

 

[Ginger19]

Is there any reason why a brood box added above couldn't hold say 4 or 5 brood frames of honey and the rest of the space made up with drawn out super frames? Will they fill the void with comb?
I have one colony with a queen just started to lay and the brood box is more than half full of uncapped honey.

 

[Finman]

Is there any reason why a brood box added above couldn't hold say 4 or 5 brood frames of honey and the rest of the space made up with drawn out super frames? Will they fill the void with comb?
I have one colony with a queen just started to lay and the brood box is more than half full of uncapped honey.

Think now carefully It is too simple to believe.

If you have 5 brood frames filled with honey, lift them over the excluder and give the rest brood foundations, What you get is ´fresh combs to future.

Then you have the brood box where a queen has started to lay. There you have pollen, brood and foundations.

Lets hope that after a week fiundations have been drawn and flow has been good. Queen fills the brood box and in upper box honey frames will be capped. Then you extract capped brood frames and they are free to use.

 

[Finman]

Finman, are all your boxes the same size or do you use smaller boxes for supers?

I use medium boxes (16 kg honey) and langtroth boxes (25 kg honey)

I do not have excluders. I do not need order in my hives when they have heavy flow. Nectar fills everything. It is whole August to put the hive in order when yield stops.

Like balance hive. brood frames are now full of honey and nectar because queen has not layed and there is a virgin inside.
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=346326

Hive has brough 28 kg in 4 days. The hive has 80 frames.
When the show is over, I give ectracted frames to be layed.

There is now idea to start to move any kilo from frame to frame.

.

 

[Jeff Buzz]

Thanks Finman

Useful advice very much appreciated

 

[Tom Bick]

Is there a way to have the bees move the stored honey in BB frames to my super frames or will the bees do this themselves when they need the room ,i have a double brood with plenty stores and the supers are being filled slower than the brood box ,maybe i,m just looking for quick result to soon ,if i put one of the brood boxes above a crown board would this encourage them to store in supers below ?

Eric.

I have a hive Q- right now and as a result the bees have back filled the top BB with soon to be honey.

So as an experiment after the new queen is laying I will put this full BB of honey on the bottom of the hive block the bottom entrance and fit a modified Horsley Board with the top entrance open but so the bees can pass down through the queen excluder and see if they move the honey up??

If it works it works but if not so what less feeding required and I have more than enough honey right now.

 

[enrico]

Be careful using bb for honey. I did demaree earlier in season and left bb over three supers to be filled with honey. It is now so heavy and I have to carry it down a steep hill. Too steep for a wheelbarrow!

 

[BILL.HEARD]

I wouldn't both with all this nonsense, any form of robbing can cause problems, either take off the brood frames and use later for supplementing nucs or winter feeding, or just extract and re-use next spring.