Coming up to First Harvest

[Meerkat]

Wellhad a peek into the girls house today on both hives and they should be ready in a couple of weeks.

We have one brood box and one full size super and when people say they get a little cranky when they have a pile of the good stuff, they were'nt kidding.

I thought there was a lot a couple of months ago but WOW !!! :eek: They are everywhere, smoking helps a little but they start popping their heads up pretty quick.

Oh and I've got over crushing a few along the way coz it's either hold the full super off until they get sorted or minimise the collateral damage and away she goes :D

A question, what will happen if I put on another super now. Will they finish filling up the bottom super before they start loading up the top one or whatever it's what they want to do ?

They would have to build new foundation in the new super too.

Or is it just better to let them fill the one super. This bothers me coz if they have no room in the super for honey, they'll start using the brood box which then might kick off the swarm cycle.

[tecumseh]

is there something to 'loose' by adding another box?

with new foundation I find the bee will only begin messing with the 'new stuff' when the pulled foundation are just about totallly fillled.

good luck...

[Jim Fischer]

> what will happen if I put on another super now.

They might draw some frames in the upper super
before drawing all frames in the lower, but you
can fix that by re-arranging the frames once they
have been drawn. Move all the drawn frames to
one box if you'd like (but you could also do this
when you harvest).

Comb drawing is a funny process. Weeks can go by
without much progress, and then, for no good
reason, the bees will draw several frames in a
day.

If you can get them to draw more comb, you'll get
a larger crop sooner.

> Will they finish filling up the bottom super
> before they start loading up the top

One can never tell, but what's important is that
by giving the bees more drawn comb, you have given
them more space to evaporate the water from more
drops of nectar, and this will allow them to
process more nectar, and in a shorter time.

Bees will place individual drops of nectar in
individual cells, so that the maximum surface
area is exposed to the air, and evaporated down
to honey. The house bees move the nectar around
extensively during the process, so the more space
they have to do this, the better.

The trade-off here is that the bees may consume
the entire spring flow in the drawing of comb.
Again, it is hard to tell, but having drawn comb
is always better than not having some.

[eric101]

My buddy always says he puts the undrawn foundation BELOW the unfilled super. They will draw the comb out faster if it is nearer to the brood chamber and they will fill the drawn super while you wait. I have found that Pooh was right "you never know with bees."

[Joel]

{BELOW the unfilled super}

The drawn comb above the foundation will draw the bees up. This is a pretty standard practice and effective, works best in the beginning and middle of a main flow, less towards the end.