A bit confused about when to add second super

[dgoodman]

Hello All,

I'm a bit confused about when to add the second super. Is it when the comb has been constructed on 7-8 of the frames, or when the comb on 7-8 of the frames has been filled with: honey, pollen, brood, the kitchen sink, etc.

Also, I'm in the process now of rotating the frames (one at a time), to encourage utilization of the maximum number of frames. I am working with the idea that I should wait a week between opening the hive and rotating again...good assumption?

Thank you for your help and expertise.

David

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I add a box when seven of nine frames are covered with bees, but then I use PC and some of my hives chimney, then I have to move frames down to fill the outsides sometimes too. Not a bad situation when needing to checkerboard. So, you could wait a bit longer but I try to not let them get congested to the point of swarming.

[MichaelW]

I don't wait for them to fill up the cells. They need to be able to start building more comb before they run out of space in the drawn comb. If they run out of space to put anything they may swarm. Ass Bullseye said you can always move drawn comb down later, better to play it safe and get a new super on there when you have comb drawn on 7-9 frames.

[dgoodman]

Thanks everyone. The second floor should arrive in a week or so. Very exciting!

Best,

David

[BULLSEYE BILL]

>Ass Bullseye said <snip>

HEY! redface.gif Where is that censor when we need one?