adding supers

[binglis]

I am new to beekeeping, andf have had a hive for only 2 months.
The tow lower deeps are almost full, and I have added a super with a queen excluder.
Do I just keep adding supers as they fill, and take the honey all at one time in the future OR do I extract a super, then put it back and extract once one super is full?
When do I add more supers?

[Brian D. Bray]

>>I am new to beekeeping, andf have had a hive for only 2 months.
The tow lower deeps are almost full, and I have added a super with a queen excluder.
Do I just keep adding supers as they fill, and take the honey all at one time in the future OR do I extract a super, then put it back and extract once one super is full?

Get rid of the excluder they  are not nicknamed honey excluders and swarm generators without a reason.  Extracting as you go is one option but it is both time consumming and wastes a lot of honey getting the equipment wet and cleaned up again.  It is best to keep adding supers and harvest all at once.  

>>When do I add more supers?

When the super is 80% full of drawn comb and 90% full of bees.  If in doubt super early.  Waiting too long to super can force a hive into swarm mode.

[Apis629]

Excluders are a "hot button" issue for most.  The way I see it is that they CAN be used and not become "honey excluders" or "swarm generators".  The key is upper entrances.  If the bees have a way to go around that obsticle, they will, and they'll store up honey just fine.  Also, if you don't use an excluder then, you may get brood in your supers and, those frames can't be extracted (much less made into cut-comb).

I actually abandoned the excluder for the first two supers then, I got the queen down and put it on.  When you're starting on the first few supers it can be a little difficult to get the bees to come up through and draw foundation.  This way, they draw foundation and get some brood up there.  Once I put the excluder on the bees always go back to take care of the brood.  This is basicaly, my way of baiting the super.  It's easier than trying to bait it with the frame from the deep below going into the medium super.

[Finsky]

I just wrote this: First of all, bees need the loose space even if you get no honey. If bees fill the "loose space" its is fine.

When bees get one capped box honey they need 2 boxes more to rippen nectar and evaporate water off. If they have too thick layer of nectar in combs evaporation is slower.

If bees have not enough evaporation surface they put nectar in brood combs and that encourage swarming.


To add supers is not question to fill them in order. That is not teh way how it goes. It is better to extract honey boxe  when it is capped. Of course you should look when to extract because a lot of honey is needed to crease all stuff with which you handle honey. It is to me 400 lbs before I start extracting.  But you loose much honey if hives are too filled.

[binglis]

My beginners kit came with an inner cover that does not have an entrance hole.
It sounds like I should create one, if I am to leave the 'excluder' on.

[shado_knight]

I tried using a queen excluder, my bees almost swarmed. They even started to block off the whole excluder with wax, I had top entrances too. Apparently some bees don't mind them, some will swarm rather than deal with it.

[BEE C]

I am definitely a reformed previous queen excluder user.  I used an upper entrance, early supering, and the little buggers still swarmed on me.  So many ways to use a QE and so many reasons not to....

[Brian D. Bray]

Bee C,

Some hives will swarm regardless of what you do, and using a queen excluder to prevent it will only cause other unwanted problems.  
Good swarm management relies on adequate space, proper ventilation, expansion room, parasite control, timely supering and queen monitoring.  2nd year queens are the most likely to swarm.

[qandle]

What does Brian mean by "90% full of bees"? My one honey super is 80% full with drawn comb and honey, (about 25% capped) but don't know what you mean by 90% full of bees. There are not tons of bees up there. I would say the occupancy is about 40-50% (of the brood chambers) as far as the number of bees.

Quint

[Kathyp]

binglis,

i will be the contrarian on the queen excluder, but take what i say with a grain of salt.  this is my first year :D .

i have used my queen excluder successfully in two ways.  when i first put my honey supers on, the bees would not move up into the supers.  i took the excluder off and after they had gotten a good start building comb and storing honey...as i recall, it was a couple of weeks, i put it back on and they continued to work well.

the second way  i used it was to reduce the size of the main hive body down to two boxes.  i put it between the 2nd and 3rd deep supers, trapping the queen in the bottom two boxes.  the workers raised the brood in box 3 and continued to fill and finish the honey supers.
this is along the same lines as what Apis629 does with just honey supers, i believe.

granted, i have hard working bees and not a clue what i am doing.....i have gotten good advice here.  it is my intention to do some experimenting with my first hives before i put to much money into expanding  :) .

oh ya...i tried the upper entrance, but had an awful robbing problem and had to abandon it.  i like the idea, but need to find a better way to make it work for me.

[goodeva]

I use one deep and the rest mediums. No excluder when frame is all honey I move it all the way up. If mostly honey and little brood I move up and to the middle when brood leaves bees fill it with honey. I leave two empty mediums between honey and brood. Queen never has gone above those. I leave all full brood down and when empty mediums get filled I add a empty above brood. This works good for me and makes sure they have plenty of room.

[Brian D. Bray]

>>What does Brian mean by "90% full of bees"?

90% full of bees by volume.  Or if you prefer when you have 9 out of 10 frames covered on both sides by bees it is 90% full.  If you find a super in this condition you can lay odds that when night comes the super is 100% full of bees due to the foragers having returned to the hive.  Waiting or delaying to super at this point may cause the bees to feel crowded, which will put them into swarm mode due to over crowding.