Adding a honey super

[pjuhl2313]

Hey all,

First time poster. My wife and I took the beekeeping class about 6 years ago and have gone through ups and downs with hives. We are still novice at best but have more time this year to really devote to our hive.

I was reading through the Central NC calendar and it suggests adding a honey super in late March. We currently have two deep boxes for brood and one medium honey super that's mostly full (85%). I have several empty medium supers and tons of blank plastic frames with no comb on them.

Long story short. If I add a honey super with empty plastic frames, will the bees be able to build comb and add honey before the end of the nectar flow? If not, what suggestions do you all recommend?

Thanks in advance!

[Jacobs]

The bees should easily be able to draw out 10 medium frames if there is any flow at all this year. Assuming you are using 10 frame equipment, you may want to start by taking 5 medium frames out and putting 5 undrawn frames in-alternating drawn and undrawn. Keep an eye on this super and watch the progress of comb building. If your hives have good strength now, they could start drawing wax anytime. When those 5 get drawn, do the same with another medium and the remaining drawn and undrawn frames. If strong and you can keep the bees from swarming, you have a good shot at getting a medium super of honey this season.

[pjuhl2313]

Ok thank you! Would you recommend harvesting the honey from the frames I remove or just setting it aside?

[Jacobs]

If you haven't been feeding sugar water and you have real honey, why not harvest it? If your goal is to get comb drawn, consider removing the honey from the medium super and putting in undrawn comb. Add a top feeder and feed 1:1 sugar water. I would not put gallons on at a time, but maybe a quart at a time, making sure the feeder does not empty. You want to provide steady sugar water for brood rearing and comb building, but not so much all the time that the bees backfill cells where the queen ought to be laying eggs. This is the time of year when bees start drawing new wax. You will see burr comb with drone brood between your frames as this starts. Timing is not exact, so having some foundation in to be drawn now will allow an early start when the bees are ready to draw and by you keeping an eye on the progress, you can make the decision when to stop sugar water and put your empty drawn comb on for the new honey season.

[reedyfork]

All of my hives overwintered this year in 2, 10-frame mediums. I put a deep box with heavily waxed black plastic foundations (only) on most of them Feb 10. As of the other day, all but a few weaker colonies had started drawing out those foundations. The strongest 3 or 4 colonies had almost fully drawn out 8-10 frames and were starting to store nectar!

This has all been done feeding them fondant only and with whatever natural nectar flow is out there already. Depending on how strong the colony is, I'm sure if you pulled the extra honey and gave them 1:1, they would make quick work of a medium super or two right now - and then those frames would be all ready for the true honey flow and they wouldn't have to invest the energy later to drawn them out. Just make sure those plastic foundations are heavily/freshly waxed.

Like Jacobs said, if your current honey is pure, go ahead and extract it. That way you will also have those empty drawn combs ready for the honey flow!

Good luck!

[pjuhl2313]

Thanks for the info folks. I went ahead and pre waxed the blank frames and will pull the honey from my medium super. I don't own a top feeder so I will have to go grab one. Should I add a second empty medium for them to go ahead and build on?

[Jacobs]

Give them 1 medium to start and keep an eye on it. You can either give them a 2nd when needed, or do like I do when getting comb drawn--take out individual drawn frames as ready and replace with frame and foundation to get drawn.

[hazmatinferno]

I had done what Jacobs recommended and found that one of my colonies is rapidly drawing combs on my medium super. It had new frames with wax foundation. I noticed today that one frame in the center had been drawn enough and had a couple cells of "liquid" in them. I am assuming that the "liquid" I saw is sugar water since I have had a top hive feeder on. Because of this, I chose NOT to put the top hive feeder back on. I also shuffled the frames around; putting the drawn comb on the outside and the less-drawn ones toward the middle. Let me know if you have any feedback on this. THANKS!

[reedyfork]

Sounds like you're on the right track. Just in the past 10 days almost all my colonies have now drawn out full 10-frame deeps without any liquid feed from me. I'm now seeing redbuds and hollies blooming all over the place, so there should be plenty of nectar coming in to encourage wax-building.

Like you, I am now adding supers of foundation to see if they'll keep working and draw them out before the main flow!