How To Get Bees To Move Honey

[Bee Draggle]

I have a beek friend who has a super of honey he wants his bees to move/empty and utilize this winter but he doesn’t want to start a robbing situation by setting it out in the yard or leave it on top of a hive all winter. I’ve heard you can put a super upside down over the inner cover and the bees will move the honey down to the brood chambers. Does this work? Should an empty super without frames be put between the super with honey and the inner cover?

[RayMarler]

The empty super spacer is not needed, but scratching the capped cells of honey really helps getting the girls to move the honey down thru the inner cover.

You can also put the super of honey on the bottom of the hive stack. Especially this time of year thru the early fall, the bees will move that honey up to above the brood nest.

[Ravenseye]

A good way to get the bees to move the honey is to scratch the cappings, tie string or something around the box to hold the frames in and then set it upside down on an active hive body. The bees won't like the upside down frames and they'll move the honey away. I've done this more than once. Sometimes, unscratched cells near the ends go untouched but that's far less of a problem.