Honey Super

LLR · July 18, 2007, 09:19:14 PM

On June 27th I added a deep honey super to the two hive bodies. The upper hive deep was 90% full of capped honey and brood cells. As of today the bees have not started to draw out any of the honey superâ€™s cells. Is something wrong or am I being impatient? Any advice and help would be appreciated since I am very new at this.

fishawk · July 18, 2007, 09:31:17 PM

Sometimes I have seen the same problem but evetually they will move into the honey chamber .

peggjam · July 18, 2007, 09:57:41 PM

Take some capped and uncapped frames from the second deep and move them up(if your using deeps for supers) this will bait them into the honey super, and make them move into it faster. This is one of the reasons you should use the same size box for everything, rather than one size for the broodnest and something else for the honey. :)

LLR · July 18, 2007, 10:01:12 PM

Thanks. I'll do that tomorrow. Should I put the bait frames in the center of the supper or on the outside?

Potlicker1 · July 18, 2007, 10:03:52 PM

I think it's best to add them to the center and let them fill it outward.

Brian D. Bray · July 20, 2007, 11:04:05 PM

move the outside, honey only frames up to be the bait frames as distrupting the brood chamber can cause a myriad of problems. Also if you're not experiencing a honey flow at the moment moving the frames up will not help. Bees draw comb when they need to, if there is no honey flow they won't draw out the frames because they have nothing to put in them.

If you're without a flow and you are determined to get drawn comb you will probably need to feed.

2-Wheeler · July 22, 2007, 01:33:24 AM

We've got a similar problem. On June 23rd our first honey super was 80% capped (spring flow). We put a second super on at that time, with about half of the frames with drawn comb and the other half new. Additional details on the blog here: http://beesandblooms.blogspot.com/2007/06/june-23rd-inspection.html

We inspected again today 4 weeks later and there has been almost no action in the new super, except we found one frame they were starting to pack with pollen! See the picture:

This is our second year, so it's like learning this all over again. A few questions:
1. Should we have removed the first super with spring flow, instead of just leaving it and adding the second super above it?
2. Why are they putting pollen in the honey super? Will that cause any problems?
3. Last year, we didn't get our first super capped until the second week of August. Maybe it's normal for a mid-summer slowdown? (But there is plenty of blooming things for them to be grazing on right now!)

Thanks.
David

JP · July 22, 2007, 02:27:23 AM

This yr we did not get enough rain, hence a poor honey crop. I have some supers that have been 97% drawn for three weeks or more now, been waiting and waiting for them to draw out that last little bit, but we obviously have no nectar production going on.

My guess with the pollen frames is that you also are in a dearth and the only thing they can bring in is pollen. Not all blooming things are good nectar producers.

Check your hives and see if they will have enough honey made to winter on. If not you will have to feed them as Brian has suggested.

abates99 · July 23, 2007, 12:06:44 PM

I had a similar problem, the bottom boxes were full (1-100%, 2-80%) I put my super on and checked it a week later. Nothing but chewed foundation, so I waited and the bees chewed the foundation more so then removed the super. I waited about two weeks and put it back on, checked the next week and nothing, so I checked it that weekend and every frame had a spot about 4" in diameter that the bees were drawing out, in one more week the super was almost 100% drawn and they were filling it. Three weeks later the super is being capped and I have harvested some of the honey.

2-Wheeler · July 31, 2007, 12:23:55 AM

I've got another theory... Perhaps it was us with the goof-up, not the bees

I inspected again this week and found nothing had changed with Hive #1, but right next door, hive #2 is going gang-busters and has filled a good portion of the upper super with honey in the past week. On Hive #1, when I looked down through the upper super to the super directly below, I could see it busting with activity and very fat capped honey cells - but while it was very crowded downstairs, there was nobody home on the upper deck. Then I noticed something unexpected... The frames below didn't line-up with the frames up top. I had put a super with 9-frame spacers directly over a regular 10-frame super.

I'm wondering if the misalignment between the two supers has them confused? Today Becky pulled the 9-frame and replaced it with another 10 frame, reinstalling the same 9-frames plus one new one.

Does anyone use 9-frame spacers on their supers? If you do, do you have to have everything set for 9-frames, or is the misalignment between the deeps and the supers not a problem for them?

doak · July 31, 2007, 02:06:41 AM

The misalinment want matter. Bees will not do very much when there is not a flo on.
I suspect I don't have as much honey on mine as there was when I quit pulling. I new the darth was coming and did it that way so I wouldn't have to feed. I had already gotten between 250 and 300 lbs from 5 colonies. I left almost that much on. With what is left of what I didn't take off and the kudzu coming on I should be looking at another 250 to 300 lbs. Above what I will leave for the bees.
doak.

LLR · August 02, 2007, 05:54:17 PM

After 15 days (today) I checked the hive. The bees had not started to draw any frames in the honey super. However they were drawing the 2 frames (50% done) I moved down to the upper deep. I moved these frames up to the honey super and returned the 2 full frames to the hive upper deep. Any suggestions or comments.