harvested, now what?

[montanabee]

Ok, so I am currently taking a break from using the extractor and sweating it out in the garage. When I am done extracting, what exactly do I do with the supers? the hives have sufficient stores and there still seems to be quite a bit of pollen activity at the hive. I chose to harvest today when it was hot since a cold spell is forecasted and I paid the price for waiting too long last year. I had honey bound hives and extracting was a nightmare.
Do I just put all four supers back on for the bees to clean them out and maybe store away a bit more honey for us? or do I put them out in the field away from the hives to get cleaned up before I put them away? ?

thanks

[Ravenseye]

I usually put the supers back on and let the bees have at them. If I have a lot of supers, I put them a ways out, along with the extractor. Either way, the bees bring the leftovers back.

[montanabee]

how long do I leave them on for?
also, once I have this huge strainer of cappings, how exactly do I get all the honey out of it? it is dripping, ever so slowly, underneath, but is there a way to get most of the honey out quickly, or just stir and wait?

[beedeetee]

I leave the supers wet and stack them until next year. When I put them on the bees move right up and start cleaning up comb and the remains of last years honey.

As far as cappings, I put them in paint strainers over buckets and let them drain for a week and then hose them out and put them in the solar melter.

[LenInNorCal]

All good actions and replys, and if you have a top feeder, put them in there. I also put my wet frames back into the hive, above the queen excluder and they seem to know what to do, especially since it was theirs to begin. But then I only have 5 hives.

[Ravenseye]

Depending on how wet the extracted frames are, the bees generally have them cleaned up in a matter of days. As far as the cappings go, you can let them drip until finished. I often "squish" them through cheesecloth or something similar and let that honey go into a separate jar since it will have very tiny bits of wax and maybe pollen as well. It'll taste different and I like it the best.

[wcubed]

You can also give them cappings to dry. Spread them out in a layer about an inch deep. They will burrow down in the cappings and dry them thoroughly - including the surface below.

Walt

[Beeslave]

You can also hang a heat lamp above the cappings to heat them so the honey comes out better. Start farther away, 2 ft or so, then move it closer until the cappings just start to melt. If you melt all the cappings slow enough the honey doesn't get real dark. When all done melting there should be a solid mass of wax in the honey you pull out and let the honey drip off.

[montanabee]

ok. so I put the supers back on to clean up and now we have been experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures. It has been in the 90's this week and the bees are going nuts. I went in after a week, to remove the supers adn they were totally filled with bees. They are even storing honey again!
How and when do I decide to remove the supers for good?

[beedeetee]

If you don't want to leave the super on over winter I would take it off. I leave everything after August first for the bees along with everything they already have in the brood boxes.

If I put honey supers back on, they would put more honey up there but then I would have to feed more. We don't have a strong fall flow though, so from August first on will just get them through the winter (usually). If you do have a good flow maybe you can wait to take the super off. Based on where you are I wouldn't think that you have much time left for them to fill the brood boxes for winter though.