What to do with half filled super frames.

[enrico]

An alternative if you have your own extractor is to spin the lot off and feed it back in a rapid feeder instead of sugar. That works best for me.

 

[Pbutterworth]

Thanks all for your response. I’m still learning a lot. I have moved it under the brood box and will check next weekend.

 

[DocMartin]

Thank you for replies to my questions as well. Fortunately when we started our beekeeping we met a wise beekeeper who advised us of the variable replies you will get if you ask any beekeeper the same question. As he put it - If 2 beekeepers are discussing a problem then the only thing they will agree on is that the third one is wrong! Nevertheless your replies are most welcome for us “ Newbees”.
I am still mystified as to wether the bees can uncap their own capped stores or wether they have to be “ bruised “ beforehand. I appreciate that it is one less step for them but would appreciate some clarification of the point.
Once again thanks for all your support on this forum even though I do not post much some of the threads are most enlightening

 

[Erichalfbee]

If course bees can uncap their own stores. They rely on them through the winter. They don’t bother uncapping nadired frames unless they need them.

 

[DocMartin]

Thank you for clarifying

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Bees don't like honey below them - they prefer it to be above and behind - so they can protect it. During winter they will munch their way upwards, so a winter visual check can reveal the level of stores by how high bees are in the frames. If they are flat against the crown-board, you might have a problem. If they are way down, there's plenty. You can always take a photo from underneath as well to see that they are alive and kicking in winter.

Putting frames under the brood box is a good way of getting them emptied. I use the technique also when I have some granulated OSR honey in May. In this case, I close off the entrance and put an eke (spacer) with an entrance between the super and brood box. It can take a while for them to clear the (crunchy!) honey in this case.

I tend to nadire a full super of stores under a fairly full brood box at the end of September with no queen excluder. Come spring, the super is empty and bees have not gotten around to laying in the super that's underneath yet. And no, there's no need to bruise the cappings. Bees put the cappings there and they are quite capable of removing them when the need to.