Over supering

[gkotlan]

Is it a bad idea to add honey supers so early in the year? I read several years ago in this forum that someone put on his 2 deeps, excluder & a few shallows in the spring and left them for the season. Good? Bad?

[Shizzell]

Personally, (again this is one of the times your going to get about 15 different opinions from a couple of people) I like to give the bees only what they need. I know a good rule of thumb is add a super or another brood chamber when 7/10 frames are full.

I have noticed they don't like the extra space when they are not strong enough, they have to expend a lot more energy to keep the hive warm.

Jake

[Michael Bush]

If it's still getting frosty at night, I'd wait until they have filled the boxes they are in with bees.  Once the weather is warm and the hive is strong, you can pile them on with no ill effects that I can see.

[Joseph Clemens]

Yeah, it would be nice to worry about over supering right now. My problem is I underestimated my production. Right now every 8-frame super I had waiting, pre-assembled and all the idle frames too, are now in use. Every comb/frame is full of honey, nectar, pollen, or brood. I do have a few hundred old frames I was going to retire, and several hundred medium supers I can assemble -- so I'm gonna be busy for a few days assembling supers, cleaning and reconditioning frames.