Multiple honey supers

[paulybee]

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?

[Understudy]

Make sure they are 80% complete on frames from the box they are in.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Brian D. Bray]

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.

[paulybee]

Great advice...thank you both!  We are going to pollinate pumpkins...this should be interesting!

[Michael Bush]

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.

[Mici]

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?

[Michael Bush]

>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).