Where do all the bees go?

[taurus]

My first colony is a double brood who have been rather busy. I've already taken one super off, extracted and replaced it. There are currently four supers in place - three crammed full and one they're working on. The one I extracted they refilled within a fortnight.

Sometime in August I need to start extracting the honey and I'd prefer to do it all in one go - so my question is that since the supers are currently full of bees if I remove the supers where do the bees go? They will surely be short of space once the supers are taken off.

Do I leave it until late August and if so will the population decline sufficiently by then that the supers can be removed and the bees will be happy just with the two brood boxes?

Or is it a case of reversing the process of adding supers one by one - ie take them off gradually.

 

[For want of a better word]

I raid the big colonies for frames, brood& stores and make up nucs to overwinter all the this years top quality locally raised queens.

No idea what the importers do... loose the bees over Winter I expect!

Finnman's catch and release system of beekeeping??

Yeghes da

 

[Motobiman]

As above, seems reasonable to make a split at the same time and try and get them thru winter in a poly nuc with its built in feeder?

Then either use it as insurance or increase you own hive numbers or sell it on in spring.

 

[pargyle]

Sometime in August I need to start extracting the honey and I'd prefer to do it all in one go - so my question is that since the supers are currently full of bees if I remove the supers where do the bees go? They will surely be short of space once the supers are taken off.
.

Yoiu will be amazed at how little space bees actually need ... Do you use a clearer board in order to get the bees out ? If you adjust the brood boxes so that all the frames with brood in them are in one box with the queen in it, put a queen excluder on the top and then put the clearer board in just above the brood box and see what happens. You will then have all the bees in one brood box - if they are hanging about on the front of the hive they may need a bit more space but to be perfectly honest it really does have to be a HUGE colony for them not to fit inside the box.

If you are using nationals and they can't fit in once the supers and one brood box are cleared then the answer is to extract all the supers and then just give them one back, put it back on below the one brood box you have kept them in and allow them to overwinter on brood and a half. The super will get filled in the autumn and your bees will back fill the brood box - with that amount of space they will have enough stores (their honey or your added feed) to see them through any winter. Mine overwinter in single 14 x 12 boxes which are roughly equivalent to brood and a half.

The time to split is not now - when they are building up in spring is a better time for expansion. You can save the empty brood box and the comb for next spring when you can split - you will need to seal the box up to avoid wax moth and rodents during winter storage.

Your colony will reduce dramatically once the forage starts to reduce and they will overwinter better as a single, thriving, colony than two smaller ones over winter. They will build up quicker in spring and will, probably, naturally make preparations to swarm - you then have the ideal conditions to split the colony and the spare box to do it with - they hit the deck running when you split and you have two really productive colonies for next year.

 

[Ely]

It is good to have a nice big cluster to survive the winter in the brood area. It is up to you to decide how big that brood area should be for the winter. In most cases, double national/14 x12commercial/whatever is more than enough. If you are harvesting in September, I wouldn't worry too much about not having enough space. The colony will be shrinking by that point. As temperatures start to cool, they will be grateful for the smaller space going into winter.

 

[taurus]

Thanks folks - I've already split the colony and am building up a new hive for the winter. The original as double brood so no need to worry about going brood & half.

Yes - I use a clearing board so I'll work them downwards in a few weeks when number start to decline.

 

[pargyle]

Thanks folks - I've already split the colony and am building up a new hive for the winter. The original as double brood so no need to worry about going brood & half.

Yes - I use a clearing board so I'll work them downwards in a few weeks when number start to decline.

So ... have I missed the point ? Wasn't your original question about what to do next ? It seems the question was rhetorical if you've already split the colony ?