When is a super not a super?

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
8
Reaction score
1
Location
Bournemouth
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
2
Newbee from Bournemouth with a 14x12 brood box plus 1 full super I would wish to leave as feed for the winter, a few frames filled in the second super, still being added to in addition to what is being packed in the brood box. These I intend to remove for my own use.
Once I do it would need to treat for varroa.
The big question: Can I treat the first super as an extension to the brood box, or do I need to remove and replace once treatment is complete?
 
Honey is worth more to you and any buyers than sugar. Use the honey for you and if necessary use sugar for the bees. But ...... There is nothing wrong with removing the queen excluder and leaving a super on the brood box if that is your preferred course. Just expect a bit of fiddling in the spring if you have brood in the super.
 
Thanks for the responses, brood box currently about 30% full of honey, mainly capped, 30% brood, rest empty but being filled.
first super all bar full, virtually all capped,
second super 4 full frames and counting, only 2 capped.
Seems as if I've a good colony.
IF I crack on with varroa treatment, how do I deal with wet frames?
Feed them back and then remove once clean before treatment?
 
As others have said take the supers for yourself 14x12 is more than ample for winter stores. As a bonus you say there still bringing in nectar this will be forced into the bb once supers are off, you’ve all next month and more to top up with syrup.
 
Any uncapped stores extract first as normal and feed back to the bees, then do a second extraction of the capped honey to keep.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top