Guilfordbeekeepers.org

I'm a new beekeeper. So I'm a bit unsure of what is happening in my hive. I'm using 8 frame mediums supers. I purchased our bees through the association this spring. The second super is now filled to capacity and the third super is just now starting to populate well after sitting there for 2-3 weeks. But it's a long way from being full. Should I simply leave the hive along and let the third super fill up and place a 4th super on top. Or, should I take the second super and abstract the honey? I sometimes feel that I should simply do nothing so there will be pleanty of honey to get through the coming winter. But maybe I'm missing out on some really good honey. Any advice would be appreciated.

Welcome to the forum. Please consider putting your location (city or county) in your profile since all beekeeping is local. We have several out of county members and one or two from out of state. All are welcome.

If you have been feeding the bees, what you have would be sugar water "honey," and you should leave it for the bees. If it is capped honey made from plant nectar, you can take the honey if you are prepared to keep an eye on the bees and feed them sugar water to build their stores as needed. My bees are still going to some nectar source, but I doubt they are finding nearly what they were a month ago, and I expect a nectar dearth any time. If the bees have enough nectar (or sugar water) the temperatures are warm enough that they should draw comb. If they don't have the spare nectar or sugar water, they won't draw comb.

To quote Wally, "What do you want to feed your bees, $5.00 a pound honey or 50 cent a pound sugar water?"

When your bees have drawn comb on around 6 of the 8 frames, you should add another super for them to work on. If you add it too soon, the bees are prone to "chimney" or draw comb in a narrow upward pattern rather than drawing all of the comb in a super. They may still leave the outer frames undrawn in the supers where most of the frames have been drawn out, and you can encourage them to draw comb on those frames by moving them from the outer edges into the area that they have drawn.

Rob gave a very good answer there, so I will just add this.

If it's nectar honey, and there in no brood in the second super, take a couple of frames from it and harvest it.

If it's sugar honey, and there in no brood in the second super, move a couple frames from the center of it to the upper super.

Either way, replace them with empties.

If there is brood in the second super, leave all as is and add a 4th when 6 frames are drawn out.

Hey, thanks for your insights. I brought 2 frames up from the brood box to help start the second super. So, I'm pretty sure there is brood in the second. But I'll work my way down into the second to verify. If I see no brood I'll take a couple of frames and harvest them. Is there a simple way to harvest this small amout of honey without buying a stainless spinner? Is here someone in the association with the equipement willing to work with me on such a small amount? The brood box was started with sugar water. But the second was mostly nectar. I'm not using a queen excluder. Also, I'm in the city of Greensboro.

Thanks again for all your help.
dmiller

Probably the best way to harvest just a few frames of honey is the "crush and strain" method. You are literally crushing the comb with the honey in it and letting it run through a strainer to remove large chunks of wax. The advantage is the low cost and no need to invest in an extractor until you are sure you need one. The disadvantage is that it will take more resources for the bees to draw out new comb rather than reconditioning and refilling drawn comb that has been extracted.

I don't think practical extractors were developed until the late 1800's, so crush and strain has a long history.

Bees will move the cluster within the hive depending on the season and food supplies. Typically, they will move up during the winter and begin the spring with brood higher up in the hive. As the nectar flow strengthens and brood in the upper supers emerges, the bees will back fill those cells with nectar and the queen will move down and lay in the lower boxes. Your 2 brood frames may be back filled or you may find that super loaded with brood. Not all bees read the books so some queens put brood wherever they darn well feel like laying.

Watch this little video. It tells a lot.


http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2007 ... train.html