What's the better way to do this - I've heard both ways.
Do you take off full supers as they are filled and replace them with empty one...?
Do you leave the full ones on the hive and stack empty ones on top of them..?
I normally stack the empties on the full ones but I know several people that take them off as they are filled thus the bees are in the " mood " to fill the empties as quickly as possible. That makes sense to me - I might try that next yr. with a few hives. The only disadvantage to taking them off as far as I can see is that you'd have to store them until you have enough of them to make it worth it to start extracting. Leaving the full supers do allow for some room for the bees to gather making the hive less crowded - that might be an issue in avoiding swarms in the early season...
Has anyone done it both ways and how did it work out. Thanks.
Quote from: SteveSC on September 14, 2007, 01:34:55 PM
What's the better way to do this - I've heard both ways.
Do you take off full supers as they are filled and replace them with empty one...?
Do you leave the full ones on the hive and stack empty ones on top of them..?
I normally stack the empties on the full ones but I know several people that take them off as they are filled thus the bees are in the " mood " to fill the empties as quickly as possible. That makes sense to me - I might try that next yr. with a few hives. The only disadvantage to taking them off as far as I can see is that you'd have to store them until you have enough of them to make it worth it to start extracting. Leaving the full supers do allow for some room for the bees to gather making the hive less crowded - that might be an issue in avoiding swarms in the early season...
Has anyone done it both ways and how did it work out. Thanks.
this is how I do it, as the supers are filled and capped I will put the new empty supers under the full one's, I dont take off and store them because you can have problems with SHB's, I remove all mine at one time once I am ready to extract, I leave the full ones on the hive so the bee's can guard and take care of them.. thats just how I have always done it, I like to extract at one time if possible....
I guess you mean take off and extract as you go. I think that would be a big hassle for me! I have tried it both ways place an empty on top of full super and also placed them under a full super. I really can't say I see any difference!
I have a beekeeping friend that likes to place his underneath the full supers---gets to be a hassle if you have a few full ones already on the hive.
I also don't use a queen excluder---which some folks prefer. I used Walt's Nectar Management Tech. and had brood in the majority of four shallows at one time this year (and of course the deep). Some folks don't like this because they say it put remnants of brood cone in their honey supers (drawn comb). Heard one opinion if no brood remnants in drawn comb used for honey, no problem of wax moths? Others like it because of the room for expansion of the colony.
Ask ten different beeks and get at least three or more different answers---maybe even ten :-D.
nope, not what I mean at all ( how did you get that?), I only extract all supers at one time (same day), I dont have time to mess with them much, just add empty ones to hives when needed, if I have a hive that has 2-3 full capped supers and the flow is still going, I will take off full supers and put empty super or supers above the brood box, then put full supers back on top of the empty super or supers, stack them up on the hive, when I am ready to extract, I could have 2-6 supers per hive, I will remove all supers from every hive and extract all in a same day,,, I only want to extract maybe twice a year if possible, summer and fall...... but no matter what you do if your flow is good and your hive are going wide open, you will have to add supers, but like said up top, I just dont add supers to the tops of hives, I put the empty supers between the brood area and the full supers.... and one more thing, I use mostly drawn out supers, this way I can put 2 or 3 supers on at one time, if I put supers with foundation on I will add them 1 at a time and watch them every few days so I know when to add the next...