Luring my bees into the supers

[Mklangelo]

I have some hives with excluders and some without.  I have unworked foundation in my supers.  Last year I tried dribbling some honey on the super frames but not a bit of work was done up there. 

Will I have to wait until a nectar flow before they go up and work?  My colonies are ready to explode right now and I've destroyed several swarm cells in an effort to keep them from leaving.    They are also building some empty "practice" queen cells.   Is this just something they do from time to time?  Perhaps at this time of year? 

I'm not sure when the flow starts up here in Milwaukee. 


Thanks and have a good one! 

[Michael Bush]

>Will I have to wait until a nectar flow before they go up and work? 

Of course.  They only build comb when they need it.  If there's nothing coming in needing storing, then they don't need it.

[Mklangelo]

>Will I have to wait until a nectar flow before they go up and work? 

Of course.  They only build comb when they need it.  If there's nothing coming in needing storing, then they don't need it.

Thanks Mike.   How can one anticipate that?   I'm not much of a botanist...

[Michael Bush]

Always make sure they have some room.  Check now and then and when the nectar starts coming in, pile on the supers.  Chart this on your calendar.  The main flow usually doesn't change that much from year to year.  Here it's the second week of June (in the country, the city is two weeks ahead of that).

[Beaches Bee-Haven Apiary]

You could try putting the new super in between to filled supers. My bees generally jump on the vacant space and fill it right up with comb.

-Nathanael 8-)

[Mklangelo]

Always make sure they have some room.  Check now and then and when the nectar starts coming in, pile on the supers.  Chart this on your calendar.  The main flow usually doesn't change that much from year to year.  Here it's the second week of June (in the country, the city is two weeks ahead of that).

Dumb question but how can I tell if there is nectar coming in?  I stand and watch them allot.  I kind of get a feel for how much pollen they bring in.  How can I tell about the nectar? 

My bees are right next to a parkway with a river and lots of wildflowers.  They are thriving like mad.   I decided to go organic this year.  No spring treatments.  But my mite count is way up in one hive.  I have Sackbrood and Chalkbrood too.  Nothing scary right now as far as it is.   

I found the high mite count in Drone cells in one hive and probably got rid of a good percentage of them by forking them. I'll have to do a sugar shake end of July.  ( I don't know what the tool is but it looks like the thing you comb your dog with to get rid of the undercoat)   Lost some drones but oh well.   This hive is making drones like mad.  A sign of wealth as far as I know. 

Not much to do about it anyway, just hope for Hygienic behaviour as far as the sackbrood and chalkbrood are concerned. 

[Beaches Bee-Haven Apiary]

Always make sure they have some room.  Check now and then and when the nectar starts coming in, pile on the supers.  Chart this on your calendar.  The main flow usually doesn't change that much from year to year.  Here it's the second week of June (in the country, the city is two weeks ahead of that).

Dumb question but how can I tell if there is nectar coming in?  I stand and watch them allot.  I kind of get a feel for how much pollen they bring in.  How can I tell about the nectar? 

My bees are right next to a parkway with a river and lots of wildflowers.  They are thriving like mad.   I decided to go organic this year.  No spring treatments.  But my mite count is way up in one hive.  I have Sackbrood and Chalkbrood too.  Nothing scary right now as far as it is.   

I found the high mite count in Drone cells in one hive and probably got rid of a good percentage of them by forking them. I'll have to do a sugar shake end of July.  ( I don't know what the tool is but it looks like the thing you comb your dog with to get rid of the undercoat)   Lost some drones but oh well.   This hive is making drones like mad.  A sign of wealth as far as I know. 

Not much to do about it anyway, just hope for Hygienic behaviour as far as the sackbrood and chalkbrood are concerned. 

Are you using screened bottom boards? Extra ventilation will help fugal diseases.

-Nathanael 8-)

[Scott Derrick]

Dumb question but how can I tell if there is nectar coming in?  I stand and watch them allot.  I kind of get a feel for how much pollen they bring in.  How can I tell about the nectar? 

I can typically tell when nectar is coming in because many bees are coming an going feverishly. I have seen as many as 300 to 500 per minute coming an going (Approx of course). This year I had a hive in the country that was moving in and out so much that you could tell the exact flight path of the bees for at least 20 to 30 yards. It was an awesome sight.

[Scott Derrick]

i

[Mklangelo]

Dumb question but how can I tell if there is nectar coming in?  I stand and watch them allot.  I kind of get a feel for how much pollen they bring in.  How can I tell about the nectar? 

I can typically tell when nectar is coming in because many bees are coming an going feverishly. I have seen as many as 300 to 500 per minute coming an going (Approx of course). This year I had a hive in the country that was moving in and out so much that you could tell the exact flight path of the bees for at least 20 to 30 yards. It was an awesome sight.

Man, I am seeing that bigtime for the last week or ten days.  I have named my hives:  Heathrow, O'Hare and JFK.  It's just crazy.   Brood up the ying yang.  The newly installed hive (April 28th)  doesn't deserve an airport name yet even though they are doing well. 

I'm just a hobbyist but these ladies have me excited!  I can see the flight paths from the back of the house.  That's about 90 feet away.
It's a beautiful thing.

No matter what may come of it, I'm into it.

[Mklangelo]

Always make sure they have some room.  Check now and then and when the nectar starts coming in, pile on the supers.  Chart this on your calendar.  The main flow usually doesn't change that much from year to year.  Here it's the second week of June (in the country, the city is two weeks ahead of that).

Dumb question but how can I tell if there is nectar coming in?  I stand and watch them allot.  I kind of get a feel for how much pollen they bring in.  How can I tell about the nectar? 

My bees are right next to a parkway with a river and lots of wildflowers.  They are thriving like mad.   I decided to go organic this year.  No spring treatments.  But my mite count is way up in one hive.  I have Sackbrood and Chalkbrood too.  Nothing scary right now as far as it is.   

I found the high mite count in Drone cells in one hive and probably got rid of a good percentage of them by forking them. I'll have to do a sugar shake end of July.  ( I don't know what the tool is but it looks like the thing you comb your dog with to get rid of the undercoat)   Lost some drones but oh well.   This hive is making drones like mad.  A sign of wealth as far as I know. 

Not much to do about it anyway, just hope for Hygienic behaviour as far as the sackbrood and chalkbrood are concerned. 

Are you using screened bottom boards? Extra ventilation will help fugal diseases.

-Nathanael 8-)

No screened bottom boards.  I did have a fungal problem in one hive. It stunk to high heaven.  I brought out a new bottom board and rotated them while cleaning out the dead green bees.  It was nasty.  I had to destroy some comb to get the dead bees out.  I did a good cleaning so after a few weeks, the hygienic behaviour of the bees did the trick... I was concerned for awhile but the bees did their job.   Smell all gone.

[Joseph Clemens]

Around here when the hive populations are strong, you can tell the flow has begun because you won't need to do anything to "lure" them into the supers, they will be very busy filling the supers with comb, honey and bees.

[jathomas]

Making sure you add your empty supers BELOW a filled one has helped me a lot, but I was still getting pretty discouraged about the queen excluders being "honey excluders" as some call them.

I tried going a season without them. Yuck. Never again.

So, I read that you can bore out a 3/4 inch hole in the front of the supers, right below the handle.

It gives them an entrance right into the super, which encourages them to use it, and they don't have to go through the excluder. If you leave a super in the winter, it will provide them ventilation, but if you feel the need to cover it, you can put a wine cork in the hole and plug it up.

I LOVE the hole-in-the-super technique, and they have really improved the rate at which the bees accepts new super frames.

[deejaycee]

I have named my hives:  Heathrow, O'Hare and JFK. 

*ROFL*  Now that's clever!

[doak]

If you have plastic excluder you can cut them so you leave the space between frames 9&10 and 1&2.
Then cut the end back on both ends to leave about an inch or two.
The queen seldom goes to the sides of the boxes and the workers will go around  the excluder, mostly.
Don't know if you noticed it in another post or not, but my belief is the over sized workers cannot go through the excluder, not because they don't want to.
Again, the hole in the super. Don't hurt nothing. Helps ventilate.
doak

[jathomas]

I do want to add that Robo and Michael will tell you (this comes up a lot, and I'm sure they're sick of saying it over and over) to let the queen lay brood up in the honey! Eventually, the bees will push her back down into the brood frames, and fill the brood cells up with honey, and all will be well (unless you want to do cut/comb honey, in which case the comb won't look as nice).

I have never tried this, because once I saw brood in my supers, I placed the queens back into the brood boxes, and went back to excluders. Maybe this works, but I have good luck with excluders, so I use 'em.

But I know I'm probably in the minority on that.