I was wondering when should you take the supers off for spring harvest, harvest honey, and when do you put them back on for the fall flow? I got 1 hive has 4 supers on it now, checking tomorrow to see how far along they are on the 4th super. I have 2 other hives I might get 1 super out of each... I am getting a little nervous with hive beetles increasing as it warms, so I hope to harvest sometime soon.
i'm a little south of you and i have a fair amount of capped honey right now but the flow is still going pretty strong. if everything is capped i'll probably pull around the end of june or early july and put about half the supers back on then. sumac bloomed around early august last year if i remember right but the bigger haul was goldenrod in september and october. this is only my second full season in the area, though.
The way I see it is, harvest when they have it capped. Have enough to make it worth your while. If you put drawn comb back after extracting they will fill it back up quick. If drawn comb is what you want, keep adding supers of foundation.
After capped..... when you please. Sooner the better IMHO.
had family down today and pulled a couple of frames that were maybe 70 percent capped. it's a little early.
Thanks ya'll.... Well my best hive has 3 capped full supers and the 4th super, has maybe 5 full frames and just building comb on the others. One of my other hives, was a little slow building up, so it only had 1 super, checked it last weekend and it had about 2-3 frames of partial comb and honey. Yesterday when I checked it, 8 frames full and capped and the 9th frame partially filled, so I added another super ( I am using 9 frame medium supers). I am thinking of harvesting the 3, or 4 supers on the big hive, maybe next Friday (take a day off from work).... besides, it will be my first time, and I would like to stick my toe in the water before being faced with LOTS of honey to extract! :)
My first year I waited and SHB got most of it. Now I take it as soon as its capped if there's enough to make it worth my while.
Yeah Wolfer that's what I been worryin' about hive beetles....
Anytime I find a super fully capped, it goes to the house. I freeze them for a few days, seal them in plastic trash bags, and extract when I get enough.
I live in Thomson, GA (kinda middle east GA). I'd recommend going ahead and robbing a couple supers from your big hive just as soon as you can.. Found out the hard way a couple weeks ago about making a tower of honey on top of a boomer hive--they swarmed! There are STILL a ton of bees in that hive, but all that capped honey is now UNcapped and I don't have a refractometer. Looks like the remaining bees are working on capping it again, though.