What do I do now ?

[Griffo]

I'm just into my second year, now with 2 hives, both brood and a half with the half on top. Hive 2 has a super on with a couple of sealed frames which I will harvest next week. There is unlikely to be much more nectar coming in now, so my first question is what do I do with the part-filled frames. The brood and a half on its own has a good balance of brood and stores and is a healthy weight.
Hive 1 has still got 2 supers on it, but there is very little going into them now. Probably about 6 frames to be harvested. My second question is the same as the first - what to do with the part filled frames from the supers. In this hive there is much higher ratio of brood to stores, so it is on the light side.
Sorry to be so long winded with the question but I have tried to provide enough info to get some opinions.

 

[Melbee]

Hello Griffo. I am in a similar situation. 2nd year of beekeeping and one of my two hives is on brood and a half then QE then supers above. All the frames in the top super are fully capped and ready for extraction - planning to do this early next week, bees / weather permitting.

The second super below has only about 3-4 frames that are full and capped and the rest are partially filled with partial capping. Although the bees are still foraging and stores are coming in and later on, there will be ivy to forage which is on the ash nearby, I plan to leave whatever is in this box for the bees as I just feel that having their own 'produce' is good for them.

After extracting, I plan to give them back the empty frames to clean up and I will monitor the varroa drop (again) - so far, very low, and consider treatment followed by winter feeding which I hope they will store in whatever empty frames remain in the supers.

Long-winded reply - sorry ! But this is my plan at present. Someone else may come along with different thoughts and ideas - but then, that's the richness and variety of this forum !
Good luck.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I nadir uncapped frames. Stores are taken up and the box is empty by first inspection the next Spring.
Or you can freeze the frames and put back next year when the first super goes on.

 

[Elaine]

You could check the part-filled frames for water content - as the honey can often be ripe even when not capped. Youreally need a refractometer to do this properly, but if teh honey is not for sale, and yuoa re going to use it pretty soon, you can tell using the shake method - ie give the frame a good vertical shake over a cover board/other easily viewlable flat serfice - as if you were trying to remove bees, and if only bees part company with the frame, and you don't have any more than the tiniest drip on your cover sheet, you can take the frame and extract. Alternatively, you can keep them and put a super under the brood box for winter, and leave the uncapped frames below for the bees to move up into the brood box

 

[Griffo]

So it's a safe bet to put the part-filled and part-extracted super UNDER the brood box for their winter stores?

 

[enrico]

Yes but they will clean them and fill the hive from the top so the super will probably be empty by the beginning of winter. Check it on a really cold day by gently lifting the brood slightly at one side, if there are no bees in it remove it. If there are bees in then lower brood again and leave until late winter when you try again. Bees will eat stores from bottom up so they will store all they can at the top and then start at the bottom when they need them!
E

 

[Marton]

What about spinning the frames before uncapping to get the unripe honey and feeding this back.

This leaves the ripe to be extracted.

Probably depends on the desire for more honey?

 

[Melbee]

Thanks Enrico - I will put the filled super under the brood box. M

 

[Mikeb123]

Would the queen start laying in the super?

 

[Griffo]

I don't want to get stuck with a brood plus two halves !

 

[Rahere]

One reason for a beginner not to go for deep brood solutions is that you skate on thin ice when it comes to swarm management. OK, you have plenty of workers for the peak honey flow - unless half defect because they start to feel the pressure of sheer number. Ya pays ya mpney and ya takes ya chance. Demaree it until the swarming urge is over...
If you do end up with brood supers, you can still add a QE board to bring the brood cluster size back to normal: those upstairs will hatch normally and exit through the QE. The frame won't be useful for honey extraction, though.

 

[Rahere]

A queen doesn't know it's a super, she'll lay wherever she can, Mikeh. That's why you use a QE to keep brood out of the honey. But if you get big, don't forget her sperm store is limited, she'll burn bright but fast.

 

[Erichalfbee]

If you nadir the super it is unlikely the queen will lay in it in the autumn. The stores are simply moved up into the brood box for winter and the box is empty. You can lift it away in winter as enrico suggests or you can leave it till the spring.
In my opinion there is nothing wrong with extracting a honey frame that has had brood in it. What do others think?

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with extracting a honey frame that has had brood in it. What do others think?

The important word is "had".

Not sure I'd fancy honey with spun-out BIAS in it!


Dusty

 

[Erichalfbee]

No.....not spun out, rather one or two grubs carefully extracted from their cells and placed in the bottom of the jar

 

[Jimmys Mum]

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with extracting a honey frame that has had brood in it. What do others think?

Agreed. As I understand it, the bees will hang fresh nectar in the brood frames anyway before taking it up to the supers. Nectar/honey gets moved around the whole hive, brood frames included. Please correct me if I'm wrong though!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The frame won't be useful for honey extraction, though.

Why not?

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with extracting a honey frame that has had brood in it. What do others think?

bees will clean them out begore uing anyway - just the wax looks a little darker - got a few dotted around my supers from a few years ago when i had a faulty QX.

Nadiring avoids it happening in the first place though