had extracted some supers and put them back on for bees to clean out.
They rapidly started filling the frames with nectar before I got a chance to get them off of one hive and on another hive where I planned to have them fill them up with a second nectar flow I am having to remove them to treat a mite infestation.
So what do I do with these frames that have a fair amount of uncapped nectar/honey? Some have light amounts, some have a pretty goodly amount (but it would be a while before the bees would have capped anything).
Can I just do standard "freeze the frames" then bag them with para-moth?
Will I get mold problems?
I am sure it is common to have some nectar in some super frames that have to be stored. What do others do?
I'm curious to why you put them back on the hives if you wanted them cleaned out? Normally you would just set the empty supers out next to the hives for a couple of days. I think in the situation eigther getting them off and letting the bees rob it back or freezing them until next year might be your solution.
We have truckloads of racoons and skunks and deer and ants where we keep our hives and I worry about setting out open supers that might get destroyed by vermin - even just for a couple days (spend too much time making the frames to have them destroyed).
I also read in a bee book to put them back on the hive to be cleaned, but I think they meant above the inner cover instead of below it (maybe so bees won't start restoring honey up there?).
On one hive I had planned on the bees filling up the super again, but we had to do a mite treatment (see my mite infestation post in the "disease/pest" section), so the super had to come off, but the frames are partially/minimally filled with honey and nectar.
So again I will ask about storing supers and how much honey/nectar can be in a super frame when you are going to store it for winter?
I am sure it is common to have some nectar in some super frames that have to be stored. What do others do?
Set them above the ineer cover,the bees will move it down.
Yes, definitely above the inner cover. It won't take them long to clean it out.
Well, above the inner cover isn't working either.
On this hive I have 2 deeps, then queen excluder, then a super that they have filled probably 60-70 of each frame with nectar, but just won't cap the things for a good 3 weeks now (not much flow going).
then I have an inner cover and a super that I have had on their for about 3-4 days that I wanted them to clean out after extracting (hoping they would move it down to deeps or lower super - to finish off that lower super).
Well, wouldn't ya know that they are filling up the upper super with nectar (but will likely not get enough to fill and cap with how of much of the season is left). The lower super is static with a goodly almount of nectar in drawn frames, but they just won't finish the job. And I know there is room in the 2 lower deeps.
So now I am stuck with 2 supers about half filled with nectar (more like most frames with most cells half-filled with nectar) and not sure what the heck to do with either of them.
Again, I hate to leave the supers open and away from the hives because I will have such an ant/racoon/skunk/fly fest that the supers will be a mess. Seem to have a bumper crop of small flys around the hives right now as it is. Carpenter ants are already a problem around the hives. Seems like an invitation for SHB and wax moths and every other honey loving creature in the woods.
Gosh darn bees must not be able to read the bee books . . . otherwise they would know to move that super nectar down like they are supposed to ;)
QuoteWell, wouldn't ya know that they are filling up the upper super with nectar (but will likely not get enough to fill and cap with how of much of the season is left). The lower super is static with a goodly almount of nectar in drawn frames, but they just won't finish the job. And I know there is room in the 2 lower deeps.
I was just going to mention that putting the supers above the inner cover isn't fool proof when I saw your last post. I have yet to have good luck with this method of clean up and now I don't even bother. Anything left over, I just freeze it...of course that will be a problem now since I have a hell of a lot more supers than I did the previous years.
Maybe spin out the excess and do a community feed from it? The critters might even get to it though. HMMPH!
Thanks, glad to hear that it doesn't always work and that my bees aren't just "under-educated".
I was thinking about spinning it out again, but seems like a lot of clean up work for a couple supers worth of something I can't use - still, it may be the way to go. Then I could just put them above the hives a bit later this fall and hopefully they will just do a quick clean up.
If I had the freezer space I would just freeze it (maybe after the above) - but based on my first year beekeeping expenditures our honey is already up to about $300 a pound and we are having a hard time selling it at this price :-D. A new freezer would bring us up to about $350/lb . . . maybe if we just push it up to $500/lb the novelty of such expensive honey will bring on massive demand :evil:. Seems to work with some stuff people sell - I mean it must be special if it is "that expensive".
gguidester on this forum - and a local bee buddy of mine - also has some "lazy bees" that won't finish off a couple supers - so we may have to have a nectar spinning party - maybe just add it to our fall sugar feedings?