I see red maple trees popping out in southern Guilford County. Given the activity of my hives I don't want them over crowding and swarming.
One of the master beekeepers in Forsyth County said start cracking open each hive at a 10 day interval to check for swarm cells starting in March if there is a rapid buildup.
When are you throwing on honey supers?
Re: When are you throwing on honey supers?
Swarm prevention and supering for honey may overlap, but are different issues. If all of your brood areas are close to full, you may want to add another super for brood and checkerboard frames to expand the brood nest. If the brood is in a super above the bottom one and you have an empty brood super below, you may want to reverse the brood boxes so that the queen can move up into the empty brood chamber. You will not want to reverse brood boxes if there is brood in both and your reversal will result in separating brood. If you wait until you see swarm cells with royal jelly and larvae in them, you are probably too late to stop the swarming instinct by expanding the brood nest.
Given the small hive beetle situation, I don't know that I will be putting whole supers on hives until I know there is a strong flow. Around here, I would not put more than 1 super on a hive unless the hive had a very strong population of bees and appeared to be in danger of getting nectar bound.
You can use the bloom date link for the tulip poplar flow dates for this area for a general idea of the main flow. You can refine it for local time frames by using the search feature on this forum and searching the term "flow." If you start looking at posting dates starting with March of each year, you can get a decent feel for what is happening when. The more input we get each year, the better this information will be over time.
Until I am comfortable that a strong flow is going on, I will probably pull individual frames as they are capped and replace them with open drawn comb--especially for the hives in my back yard.
Given the small hive beetle situation, I don't know that I will be putting whole supers on hives until I know there is a strong flow. Around here, I would not put more than 1 super on a hive unless the hive had a very strong population of bees and appeared to be in danger of getting nectar bound.
You can use the bloom date link for the tulip poplar flow dates for this area for a general idea of the main flow. You can refine it for local time frames by using the search feature on this forum and searching the term "flow." If you start looking at posting dates starting with March of each year, you can get a decent feel for what is happening when. The more input we get each year, the better this information will be over time.
Until I am comfortable that a strong flow is going on, I will probably pull individual frames as they are capped and replace them with open drawn comb--especially for the hives in my back yard.
Re: When are you throwing on honey supers?
With my strong hives, I threw on honey supers today at my house. Holly type plants are in bloom, bees are flying like crazy, and I can smell the nectar curing. I need to check my other bees and take supers with open, drawn comb to put on if needed.
Re: When are you throwing on honey supers?
I'm smelling the nectar curing in my hives also. Holly trees are a favorite of my bees, so I'm going to put on supers tomorrow.
Paul
Paul