How do I get my bees to move up into the super

[vermmy35]

I am at a lost for words.  I put my medium super on about 2 weeks ago and the bees would rather make burr comb in stead of moving up into the super.  I was thinking of pulling of the queen excluder and seeing if they move up then or should I use lemongrass oil and see if they move up that way. 

Thanks for you help Norm

[tct1w]

They generally wont move up unless there is something stored there already. Take off the excluder and let them get started and then put it back on. Should work fine Dave

[vermmy35]

thanks dave

[MustbeeNuts]

no excluder, I never use one.

[sarafina]

I never use a queen excluder and I had no brood in either of my honey supers this year or last.

[Michael Bush]

Give them a good talking to.  That should straighten them out.  ;)

[asprince]

Give them a good talking to.  That should straighten them out.  ;)

Yes, that works every time!  :-D :devilbanana:

Steve

[johnnybigfish]

do you suppose there might not be enuff bees in the colony to have to move up yet?
I dont use an excluder either except for when I box a swarm.
your friend,
john

[asprince]

They generally wont move up unless there is something stored there already. Take off the excluder and let them get started and then put it back on. Should work fine Dave

Seriously, this is what I do as well. I have found that if I place a super of drawn comb on a hive, they will move up immediately. If it is just undrawn foundation, I often have to remove the excluder to get them started. If I wait to long to put the excluder back, I generally get some brood in my honey super. If that happens, I just make sure the queen is below before adding the excluder. When the brood hatches, they will clean the cells and fill with honey.

Steve

[Bee Whisper82]

Thanks for all the info it has helped me too. ;)

[wisconsin_cur]

I love it when my own question is answered before I even ask it.  TY to the participants of this thread.

[mick]

I am at a lost for words.  I put my medium super on about 2 weeks ago and the bees would rather make burr comb in stead of moving up into the super.  I was thinking of pulling of the queen excluder and seeing if they move up then or should I use lemongrass oil and see if they move up that way. 

Thanks for you help Norm

Mate its the curse of the Queen Excluder. Im now totally these things are no good. I think in the old days, they didnt have the equipment, knowledge we have. I suspect that we manage bees better so that we dont have queens laying where we dont want them. You cant go wrong with 2 supers for the queen and as many supers after that as you like. The queen would have to be superwoman to need more than two supers. She just wont move any further up. I reckon Bees look up see the bars of the excluder and see a fence.

Of course I know nothing and come from a far away place. :)

[BjornBee]

I would learn the proper use of excluders in conjuction with upper entrances.  ;)

[Scadsobees]

And it isn't just excluders....I was surprised at how much quicker the bees will use FRESH new drawn comb, over old stored drawn comb!!  I had a super with few frames that I had on a new swarm that they had just started on before I replaced with a brood box.  Put those few in a box with drawn comb, and the hive started filling the fresh combs almost immediately, not using the older drawn comb right away.

[Brian D. Bray]

I don't use queen excluders except as includers when catching a swarm but if a person wants to use excluders the correct methods is to either let the bees begin working the super, drawing a few frames, before putting the excluder on or baiting the super by moving some frames of stores (the outer frames are almost always stores) into the super to draw the bees up into it.  The 1st method works better than the second.

[vermmy35]

Thanks for all your help they finally moved up and I have decided not to use a queen excluder unless I am going to split a hive or whatnot

Thanks for all your help