When/how to take a Nadired supper off?

[thedozzer]

Our first time this year trying out a nadired supper, only on our bigger hive to see if it helped them over winter.
Both hives are 14 x 12 poly and they both look to have wintered well.
But its hard to work out if the nadired supper helped as we have not had any real cold to speak of!

When is the best time to remove the supper? first inspection? and what do you do with the frames if they have any stores left as its likely to be Thymolated syrup!!
we don't have as much spare storage for all the bee stuff and so would like to be able to use the supper later in the year on top as normal.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Our first time this year trying out a nadired supper, only on our bigger hive to see if it helped them over winter.
Both hives are 14 x 12 poly and they both look to have wintered well.
But its hard to work out if the nadired supper helped as we have not had any real cold to speak of!

When is the best time to remove the supper? first inspection? and what do you do with the frames if they have any stores left as its likely to be Thymolated syrup!!
we don't have as much spare storage for all the bee stuff and so would like to be able to use the supper later in the year on top as normal.

The supers I nadir have uncapped honey in them and go under in the autumn. The bees empty them up in a matter of days. There are no stores left in them. If I want capped stores for the bees I leave the super on top.
I take mine away at first inspection

 

[enrico]

Bees eat stores from bottom up so it should be empty. However the queen lays under stores that are left so there may be brood in it. Just put it over a queen excluder when warm enough and before drones are laid. Make sure queen is not in it. Brood emerges and they fill it with goodies!
E

 

[Millet]

I take mine away as soon as it is warm enough for the bees to be flying in numbers..

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bees eat stores from bottom up so it should be empty. However the queen lays under stores that are left so there may be brood in it
E

Even in a 14x12?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The supers I nadir have uncapped honey in them and go under in the autumn. The bees empty them up in a matter of days. There are no stores left in them. If I want capped stores for the bees I leave the super on top.
I take mine away at first inspection

it's a silly maneuvre nadiring a shallow full of capped stores and expecting the bees to shift the whole lot up again.
14x12's shouldn't need an extra shallow anyway - they're already the equivalent of a brood and a half.

 

[Swarm]

it's a silly maneuvre nadiring a shallow full of capped stores and expecting the bees to shift the whole lot up again.
14x12's shouldn't need an extra shallow anyway - they're already the equivalent of a brood and a half.

 

[thedozzer]

it's a silly maneuvre nadiring a shallow full of capped stores and expecting the bees to shift the whole lot up again.
14x12's shouldn't need an extra shallow anyway - they're already the equivalent of a brood and a half.

Thanks for all the pointers, shall have a look in and remove soon, as they have been doing orientation flights today in quite large numbers in-between the wind and the showers.

And JB the only reason we nadired a supper on one hive is they were a very large colony going into winter and had a good 6 frames of brood on the last inspection before closing up, so didn't want them to run out and thought they would be a good colony to try it on?
Plus we are still on the steep bit of the learning curve!!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

the only reason we nadired a supper on one hive is they were a very large colony going into winter and had a good 6 frames of brood on the last inspection before closing up, so didn't want them to run out and thought they would be a good colony to try it on?

Yes, but unfortunately there's a lot of people out there doling out advice and discussing nadiring as it has now become awfully fashionable that sadly, don't really know what they're on about. Next year, if you have a full capped super you want to leave for them, just take away the queen excluder and leave it on top, all you have to do in the spring then is make sure the queen is down in the brood box and put the excluder back.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Nadiring a shallow is simply a ploy to move unusable honey into the brood for winter. It’s always worked better for me than getting the bees to rob out a super on top.

 

[thedozzer]

Yes, but unfortunately there's a lot of people out there doling out advice and discussing nadiring as it has now become awfully fashionable, that sadly don't really know what they're on about. Next year, if you have a full capped super you want to leave for them, just take away the queen excluder and leave it on top, all you have to do in the spring then is make sure the queen is down in the brood box and put the excluder back.

Hi JB. It was a supper of partly capped frames that we gave to them, there was still ivy about and not a lot of space in the main brood box, so yes probably followed some advise on here!

This year as the other hive has been fine, will just keep to the main brood box, was just a good opportunity to see if it made them build up quicker.