Hi. I am planning on harvesting tomorrow. After I'm done, what should I do? I have 2 brood boxes and 2 honey supers on top. There are lots of bees in all boxes. When I remove 2 honey supers, all those bees going to be only in 2 brood boxes. Is it going to be over crowded? Are they gonna want to swarm? When you extract honey supers you put them back from where you took them? To me it doesn't make sense that all those bees are going to be in 2 brood boxes. Sorry if it sounds weird or funny to you but this is my first year doing it.
I'd appreciate all your comments. Thanks in advance.
If you are going to extract, put the wet supers back on the hive. They will re fill them if there is a flow. If not, they will clean off any honey that is left. If you are going to crush and strain, place a new super on the hive.
Steve
Just to keep this going a bit. At what point would you take off the supers completely and force the rest of the bees down into the 2 brood boxes? Even if there is not a big fall flow the queen has to have room to lay brood for the fall (and winter). I know there is a time when you want them to fill the top box for winter food.
DB
Why the newspaper for crush and strain? Last year I just put the boxes in the yard about 40 feet from the hives and let everyone feast. It didnt take long and the frames were as clean as day one.