Supers

[Neil]

Hi All

Just wondered if it's the done thing to leave each super on the brood box when it's full and add another empty super on top of it and extract them at the end of the season; or do you take them off as each one is full, and replace it with a empty one and extract as you go.
What is the best system as I am in no rush to extract.

 

[BKF Admin]

Hi Neil,

Last year I rotated them so the empty supper was on the bottom and the full ones on top.

I assume we are not talking OSR here ?

It will be interesting to see what others do though.

 

[Finman]

First, you must add more space / super according the growth of colony, even if honey is not flowing.

2) When you add new box, you must add empty space above brood.

3) When bees make one box capped honey, they need two other boxes where they dry upp the nectar.

That is basic. Otherwise bees will swarm.

4) Bees' natural system is that rippen honey is upp and nectar is down. It is better to follow their natural instincts.

5) When one or two boxes are full of capped honey, it is better to extract them because bees need empty combs. If you do not give, they stuck the brood are and again, swarming.

In very good nectar flow hives will be full of honey in 2 weeks. It is better to look what is happening there, or you miss the whole year's work.

 

[Hombre]

Depending entirely on your own circumstances, number of hives, how many supers you have, how many suoers have drawn comb, where your hives are and how much you want to minimise box shuffling, you might just remove full capped supers to a safe (from theft, accident, pest damage, vandalism) convenient place for extracting as and when you feel inclined.

What do people think about this generally and does anyone have any rules of thumb as to the way they work personally? This is a large area where different practices suit different circumstances and preferences. Please can we have the benefit of your varied experiences? What works and what doesn't? Who's aggregated capped supers on a bench in the garage/workshop between crown boards only to have a disaster occur?

 

[Polyanwood]

I have had mice attack supers with stores in them. I will not be giving them the opportunity of doing that again.

 

[Finman]

Depending entirely on your own circumstances,

Please can we have the benefit of your varied experiences? :

I told my 46 years experience.
My goal is to get the bee tower full of honey. And if the summer is good, it happens 3 times.

I do not think that there is much variation in these things. We play with bees' basic instinct and bee is not a machine.
The bee react very rapidly if things are not good: it swarms and foragers escape. If hive is full, at least it stops working.

We have talked much about horizontal "long hive". It is nice as idea but experience says that bees cannot handle the orientation and swarms heavily.

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If you do not extract you honey in time, they will be crystallized in combs.

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What alternatives to handle this?

110 kg honey inside ( 60 kg capped) - more boxes but you don't have?

.

 

[Finman]

.
If summer is bad and you have not nectar flow, you need not to think what to do. Nothing is to be done except wait for better weather.