When is the right time?

[redpola]

I've been advised twice now by local experienced beekeepers to get my (only) super off my (only) hive and extract it immediately, then treat for varroa right away. I suspect there is an element of "go away and stop bothering me" about this advice and in fact at least one of the advice givers has given me bad advice previously.

Multicoloured pollen is still coming in thick and fast and the Ivy hasn't flowered in this area yet.

Am I doing something horribly wrong by waiting a little longer?

 

[mexbigshow]

hi red, i haven't harvested this year because i only caught a cast quite late and i plan on building it up rather than take honey from them, some beekeepers leave a super on over winter for the bees but i suppose it depends on whether you want to take any honey for yourself, i'm sure someone else has more advise for you though.
Where in Rotherham are you?
chris

 

[redpola]

Thanks Chris. I'm pretty central - Broom. Near enough to the centre (1m) for these to be urban bees.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

One thing to be aware of is the temperature required for most, if not all of the thymol varroa treatments to work effectively - around 16 degrees or so. Four weeks from now takes you into October, and without knowing what the temperature will be then, your experienced friends are probably pointing you in the right direction

 

[als_bees]

Varroa Treatment

Here in Lincolnshire most of us are about finished now with our varroa treatment Suppers came off before that. I have been feeding my bees for a month now but I am about to put a supper on each for the Ivy. You should try lifting the back of the hive this should give you some idea about the food stored in the hive. Thay may be bringing in stores but that might not be enough for the number of bees in the hive. Plus if all the other bee keepers around you are doing varroa treatment then you should as well.

 

[DrNick]

Hi Red, I am in Doncaster so a little further out than Chris, as mentioned above by @als bees you are probably being given good information by those around you, also Ivy honey is not to most peoples liking and many feed it back to the bees (let the bees keep it), if you remove the super now you will not get the mix of Ivy and whatever else you have in there, I personally would take the super off and start varroa treatment (find out what works in your area) only Apiguard and (Oxalic acid in January) work in Doncaster now so find out so you don't waste your money.

 

[drex]

If you intend to harvest honey then you must get your supers off, before you start Varroa treatment that is thymol based. As said in previous posts this treatment takes at least a month and is temperature dependent.

I am south of you and in warmer east anglia and have harvested and started treatment. That will leave me time to get the bees fed before winter ( I hope).

Nothing is certain. Seems you have had good advice. What you choose to do is of course entirely up to you.

 

[user 6228]

Your location says Rotherham, that covers everything from city to moorland... Your hive could be wood or poly
located in bright sunshine or a dark wood...

A sheltered sunlit poly hive on a south western slope with access to heather at the moment might give a different answer to wooden hive in a dark copse surrounded by grazing land.

The answer is in the your local detail (1km radius) not the national generality not even the LBKA generality. For example I think I might be the only one maybe two in the LKBA thats on heather from their home hives...

 

[DrNick]

@derekm, red has already said they are in central Rotherham and that they are urban bees, granted there is no mention of what type of hive or position (South facing etc) but you can pretty much work out that the bees will be feeding from hanging baskets and garden flowers as well as the weeds that are about locally and around the river Don and canal so maybe some balsam.

Red if you would like someone to have a look for you I am free most days, just PM me.

 

[user 6228]

@derekm, red has already said they are in central Rotherham and that they are urban bees, granted there is no mention of what type of hive or position (South facing etc) but you can pretty much work out that the bees will be feeding from hanging baskets and garden flowers as well as the weeds that are about locally and around the river Don and canal so maybe some balsam.

Red if you would like someone to have a look for you I am free most days, just PM me.

thks Hadnt spotted that "Central Rotherham".

 

[redpola]

Thanks for all the replies. I wasn't saying that I'd necessarily been given bad advice - but more that I'm greedy!

I'll probably extract and treat this week I think.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Personally I would take the super off (depending on that state of the honey inside) and start treatment / feeding. Again everything is down to local circumstances and what state your colony is in.

I have taken off supers on all but 3 of my hives and am treating / feeding them. The other 3 are very big colonies and I have left them one super each at the moment as they probably would not physically fit in just a BB! If and when they collect / cap any honey I will then decide to either leave them with the super for winter or extract and feed. Again all down to personal choice. I understand the risk I am taking with these hives due to delaying treatment / feeding but again I have enough hives to not worry too much with my experiment.