Just finished and extraction and have 5 shallows of wet frames I would like to have the bees clean up. Looks like I'm in the middle of a Cabbage Palm flow and the girls aren't interested in the empty supers even though they are stacked next to the hives in the bee yard. I'm getting ready to stack them back on the hives to see if that will work but am a little worried about having small hive beetles moving in and really causing a problem.
My question is how long will it take the bees to clean up the wet frames if I stack them back on the hives. Last time I stacked wet supers on the hives the bees cleaned them up but ended up filling a lot of the frames part way which caused a problem with SHB's later on.
My bee yard is still recovering from a SHB invasion three years ago and I don't want to ever deal with that again. I know the best way to prevent SHB's from attacking a hive is to keep it strong with no extra space which is why I'm questioning if I should stack the wet supers on the hives and if I do how long should they stay on.
Thanks
Put the wets ON the hives... they will quickly clean them up or refill them.
Put one per hive and check in 3 days.
Do you put the inner cover between the hive proper and the wet supers?
Some do, I don't. If no flow is on, it isn't needed. If there is a flow on, I leave it to be filled again.
I put my wet supers on right before dark, otherwise it may create a robbing frenzy.
Leaving them out next to the hive is the worse thing you could do if you have SHB problems. Seal up those boxes and give one box at a time to your hives. If it is during a flow they are going to fill them if it is during a dearth they are going to clean them but for a dearth put the box above an inner cover so they put the honey down into the hive. It could be a week or two to fill them and a day or two to clean them. Don't put wet supers on weak hives.
Michael
This year I will place supers back on but I am concerned about robbing. I have about 15 hives and only do about 5 at a time given my age. If I replace supers on only 5 haves will this cause robbing from the other hives. Or do i need to replace them all at the same time?
Thanks
Quote from: Michael Bush on July 11, 2016, 05:05:51 PM
Put the wets ON the hives... they will quickly clean them up or refill them.
>This year I will place supers back on but I am concerned about robbing.
Putting them in the open is the bigger risk.
Thanks for all the advice, I put the wet supers back on the hives without an inner cover between the hives and supers and will check them in two or three days to see what is going on. About half the frames are getting old and will need replacing by the end of the season so my main concern is getting them cleaned up and back into storage for the end of summer flow. Don't want to keep them on the hives too long because the older frames can draw SHB's.
I left one mixed super out in the yard to see if the girls clean it up next to the extractor, the other 4 got split between two strong hives.
The bees clean them up very quickly. They may consolidate some of it so some may get filled again, plus if there is a flow they may quickly fill some of it...
Quote from: Michael Bush on July 12, 2016, 05:12:08 PM
plus if there is a flow they may quickly fill some of it...
That is why I suggest he put them on top of the inner cover. He could freeze them, store them, and put them out during a dearth and they will pick them clean in a couple of hours.
In Florida and in a flow?....why would you not put them back on for an additional harvest and then in september before the pepper flow pull em clean em up and store/replace?
Just checked the hives and the girls have cleaned the wet supers up nicely. Pulled an empty one off of each hive to tighten things up and left the rest on for the flow.