Extraction of supers...

Apis629 · June 01, 2005, 10:01:21 PM

I was just wondering if it is at all possible, or recomendable, to be really cheap and instead of buying or making supers with frames a colony could have honey extracted as they make it. I guess what I'm trying to say is, once a super has frames full of capped honey can that super be removed for extraction then placed back on the same day or the next? I can't think of any reason I wouldn't be able to do this but I wanted imput from more experienced beekeepers.

L. Osborn · June 01, 2005, 11:08:12 PM

It isn't that expensive to have several supers on each hive. Usually most people are lucky if they get a hive to fill 3 supers in a season. A colony will often work several boxes at once if the frames are already drawn out and they really need several to house the thousands of bees that would otherwise crowd the brood nest. That said, I did know an old beekeeper that would search through all of his hives each day for frames that were mostly capped. If a frame was more than half capped he called it good and removed it for extracting that day. The next day he would return the frames to the hives and the bees would quickly start filling them again. While this worked for him he still had two or three boxes on each colony so that nectar coming in could be spread out to reduce its moisture content. By removing frames as they were ripened and capped he was able to save the bees some work and they always had space to place their nectar loads.

Apis629 · June 01, 2005, 11:18:05 PM

Just so you get a clear idea of what I'm talking about I have a deep brood chamber with a medium super for the bees on top of that. Last up is the medium super with which I intend to harvest honey.

SherryL · June 02, 2005, 12:10:26 AM

Basically what L. Osborn is saying is that not all the frames in that top super will be ready for extraction at the same time.

If you don't want to make extra boxes fine, but I would suggest at least having maybe 4 or 5 extra frames ready to go, as the ones on the hive are filled and at least 90% capped they can be removed. Maybe on your first trip you'll only be able to take off 2 or 3 frames, have 2 or 3 EXTRA frames with you ready to put into their place. See? If you go back to the hive in 5 or 6 days and ANOTHER 2 or 3 frames are ready to take off, then you can remove those and replace them with the 2 or 3 you took off 5 days earlier. You can continue to rotate new frames and old extracted frames in and out all summer.

Apis629 · June 02, 2005, 01:10:10 AM

Wow...that's a great idea. Good thing I bought extra foundation and frames. Thanks for the fast reply.

Finsky · June 02, 2005, 02:41:43 AM

Quote from: Apis629a super has frames full of capped honey can that super be removed for extraction then placed back on the same day

from more experienced beekeepers.

I have 40 years experience, if it something means.

You can exract honey and put aften a second the supers back. No matter.

But it is usefull to extract several supers in one time, because you need a lot of honey to grease your exctractor and sieves. It is not cheap at all. If you get 30 lbs honey from one super, 30% stays on the surfaces of extraction process. 20 % of honey is in uncapping wax.

Good hive has 2-3 brood boxes and 4-6 supers. 5 box hive is not effective to collect honey. 6-7 is more handy. If you have small hive, you must all the time be charp with free space in hive. Hive needs all the time 1-2 empty box for new honey. In good honey flow 2 supers are full during one week.

If hive is 4 boxes, it fulls space very quiclky, then it turs lazy and beging to think swarming. Most of beekeepers do that way. - To look every day to hives, - no use! It helps nothing.

When I keep my hive on canola field, I use extra brood chamber lowest. Then I have 4-5 supers, and boxes will be full in a week.

If you have 2 box hive on canola field, it will swarm after a week, because it becomes really full. Also firelower gives honey often as much.

SherryL · June 02, 2005, 10:57:50 AM

Nathan, do you own an extractor?

This is only my second year. I opted to try comb honey to avoid the expense of an extractor purchase. I'm up in an area somewhat void of beekeepers, although I've found that there's a newly (new this year) forming 'club' about 45 miles away. They've only had one meeting, won't meet again until July, but I may try to go. What I'm getting at is that you may be able to find other beekeepers in your area with an extractor they're willing to lend.

sherry

Michael Bush · June 02, 2005, 04:19:31 PM

When a flow is one, I like to have four supers or more of drawn comb on every hive. More would be better. They can fill a lot of supers in a short time and they need space to spread all that nectar out to dry.

Apis629 · June 02, 2005, 09:59:07 PM

Ok. Thanks for all the replies( now I feel like an idiot). I guess I should have thought about how fast bees fill supers and that they need space to spread nectar out as Michael said. At least I'll probably have till next year to buy more supers/frames/foundation. Would anyone else agree that I'm starting so late in the season that there won't be any robbable honey? I just hope they can build up enough stores for themselves before hurricane season.