Is 6 supers at a time too many?

[leafcutter]

I've got a strong 2-deep hive that filled/capped 2 supers in the first 2 weeks of June last year during a good flow. Last week I added a dry/drawn super to the 3 supers that were already 50% capped since I knew that flow was coming...... and today was surprised to find it already filled up with nectar tho the flow is only just beginning. I decided to take 2 more half filled supers from hives that couldn't finish them and add them to the stack - a last shot at getting them capped by the end of the bloom season. It looks pretty silly with 6 supers on top. Can they really work on/finish that many at a time? Arrange in order of most full at the top down or most full at the bottom up? I would rather have taken the full ones off, but even the closest was not yet ready. Whats the most anyone has had on at a time?

[iwombat]

Here's what _Keeping Bees_ says about it, and offers a 5-super scheme.

". . . you can adopt the conventional three-to-five super plan. Add them in order as Illustrated (iwombat: I'll do my best). Put on a new super when the one just before it is about half-full and the one preceeding that is mostly full. . . rotate supers front-to-back with each shift in location. This is more important in comb honey than extracted."

Now, the sequence, as per the book, where the number is the number of the super added.

1


2
1


3
1
2


4
1
2
3


5
2
3
4
(harvest 1)


----

I think the ordering would still hold with as many as 6 supers, but with that many you might need an imrie shim or a top entrance of some sort. Personally, I've never had that many, but the book was handy and I remembered it was in there. Hope it helps

[nursebee]

Some old timers might disagree with me but
1. Moving supers around aint my cup of tea. My back is precious.
2. I'm not sure bees read that book. They do not shift anything around like that in nature.

6 is just fine if they work them. Be proud.

[DRUR]

Our flows here are limited and in my area we usually average about 3 med. supers a year, so it is important to "manage" the supers to get them all properly capped and finished.

I usually start out with one honey super. They will cap the middle frames first. I then usually move these capped frames to the outside leaving the uncapped frames in the middle of the super. When half the frames are capped and the others have honey I add another super on top. Usually the bees will finish the middle frames on the first super while adding honey to the middle of the 2nd super. After the first super is fully capped, I always moved the first finished super above the second unfinised super. My theory on this is so that the bees don't have to travel so far up the supers to fill them. I would then usually pull the capped super, after they are started good on the second super, and extract it, but I only had about 12-15 colonies. Then I would return the extracted super and start the process all over again.

However, one time I had 5 colonies on a trailer of 40 with a friend of mine sitting over Hubam clover. We made about 3 1/2 supers in just shy of 3 weeks, and didn't extract until we moved the bees. I/we just kept moving the capped supers higher. You must learn to manage the flow in order to get the supers capped and finished properly. Depends on the flow, your area, and your time.

Danny