Honey Super

[Mistura Fina]

I'm pretty new to bee keeping. I got my first package of bees in the third week of May last year; too late to get any honey at the end of the season. They pretty much took their time doing things. By October they still hadn't moved into the upper super. I took a full frame out of the lower super and put it into the upper super to entice the girls upstairs. We have fairly mild winters here in Carmel Valley, Ca so my girls never wintered up but kept a light flying schedule. When they started flying for reals in February, I inspected and found they started to build comb on one frame in the upper. Now, they're going crazy, flying up a storm. I inspected the hive today and found the upper super about 95% full of honey and brood comb, so I installed the queen excluder and honey super. Questions.  How early can I harvest? How many times during the season can I harvest? Should I wait until the end of the season, adding more honey supers when needed?

P.S. I guess all California girls, including bees, are pretty laid back. I haven't used my smoker since last July. No need to. 

[CBEE]

You can pull as much off as you want providing you leave enough for them to overwinter on. Any frame that is fully capped over can be pulled anytime you want to. It is totally up to you as to what you want to do. You can pull individual frames and just replace them with empty ones or wait until the whole super is ready or keep throwing them on until the flow is over and pull them all off at once. :-D

[Brian D. Bray]

I would suggest removing the excluder until after they have begun to work it.  Puting the excluder on with nothing to draw the bees up is the same as putting a top on a hive.  Once they've begun working the frames in the super to the point of havinf 1 couplw of frames with partially drawn comb and nectar curing in it it should be okay to install the excluder.  Putting one on too early, as I said, is the same as putting on the top and the bees will swarm grather than go through it unless there is bait in the form of frames of honey or brood to draw them up.

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#excluders