Super not progressing

[JonnyPicklechin]

SW London: My hive has a shallow super. This tops two broods in which activity is still good for eggs and larvae in the lower. The super was progressing well up to beginning July. But currently it is not filling out as fast as I expected with comb and honey.

I'd like to harvest some honey as a newbie. The upper brood box has filled capped outer frames with no brood.

Is it fine to take the two opposite end brood frames and harvest those? This would get me all I would need and expect for this year.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Swarm]

SW London: My hive has a shallow super. This tops two broods in which activity is still good for eggs and larvae in the lower. The super was progressing well up to beginning July. But currently it is not filling out as fast as I expected with comb and honey.

I'd like to harvest some honey as a newbie. The upper brood box has filled capped outer frames with no brood.

Is it fine to take the two opposite end brood frames and harvest those? This would get me all I would need and expect for this year.

Thanks in advance.

Absolutely fine, just make sure you don't leave them short. They are probably consolidating, mine are.

 

[enrico]

Because you are on a double brood they will fill that at this time of the year before they fill the super. A poor flow means that it is unlikely to be filled now unless you get a good crop from somewhere so I would have a couple of frames from the brood just for a taster! I would actually see if you could rearrange the brood and a bit of food down into one brood box and see if that leaves you with any left overs in the other brood box! It is unlikely they will have twenty frames of brood but they may have eight or nine which will fit into the lower box. Hope all that makes sense, haven't had a coffee yet!
E

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

It sounds like you have tended to have a lot of space on there. You are new so (correct me if I am wrong) they did not overwinter on double brood but you put them on it. When, and from what foundation? Were you given / did you buy an overwintered nuc? In any case, it sounds like the super was added a bit early. It doesn't matter; there are worse things to do than give them too much room in summer. But one of those worse things (at any time) is to be impatient. I would not go taking stuff out of the upper brood box (to replace it with foundation? More space) until I was sure that I could not get this year's "taster" from the super. In SW London, you might get nectar coming in for at least three weeks. If the super is really patchy, and you need to abandon ship, then take the two fullest frames and switch them with the "harvest" frames*, then take the rest and store it in a warm dry place over winter (you should get away with one super...) or try to get them to rob it down a couple of frames at a time through a small hole in a feeder board.

*ADD The disadvantage here, and one reason I run single size, is you generate space below the frame that they then have to fill or leave empty. But better than 2 frames of foundation I reckon.