We are going to put two hives at a friends' farm quite a few miles from our home. Would it hurt to put more than one honey super on each hive at a time in case we don't get to the farm every week to check on the bees?
Make sure they are 80% complete on frames from the box they are in.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
Putting on more that one super at a time is sometimes necessary. When you are working with drawn comb and/or you're in the middle of a heavy flow. Otherwise 1 at a time is plenty. If you're using foundation it will slow the bees down about a week while they draw the comb. If you're checking your bees every 10-14 days you should have not problems and should stick to 1 super at a time. Putting too many on to early in the season will actually set the bees back and encourage burr comb.
Great advice...thank you both! We are going to pollinate pumpkins...this should be interesting!
It's better to have too many supers than to run out of room, but just right is better if you can.
If I know I won't make it back, I'll put on extra.
what if you would put one honey super and then add a few layers of newspaper and then another one, would they chew it up imidiatly or would they chew it when they'd be out of room and wanted to expand?
i mean,.,..how usefull could this be?
>i mean,.,..how usefull could this be?
I'd never though of it. For empty frames this might be a very useful thing. With drawn comb I like to have bees to guard it from the wax moths and ants (and if I had any the SHB).