when is it too much room?
I still have a couple supers of wet frames I want to put on my hives and I am concerned about giving them more comb than they can take care of. It seems that with the wet supers I've put back on, they don't just clean the comb, they keep much of it in that super and are adding more pollen and possibly nectar. We have groundcover wildflowers blooming, not sure what they are but I assume they are nectar producers.
If I were to force down the bees they would probably fill 8 seams of a 10 frame box. I don't think I can pull supers off for storage when there is still pollen and nectar, correct? How do I know when I'm giving them more comb than they can care for? The bees on most days here are very active.
Thanks.
Re: when is it too much room?
Have you tried giving them the wet supers above the inner cover? That may stop them from filling the fames.
Re: when is it too much room?
No I haven't tried that, but I will with these last 2 1/2 supers. Thanks!
I still want to know if I should pull off supers that are drawn comb that have some nectar and pollen, and then how would I store them if I do?
Re: when is it too much room?
You may want to get an answer from a local beekeeper on whether or not to pull them. It would depend on your local conditions. If you do pull them, I would think that you could feed them back the same way as the wet supers and store them as empty drawn comb.
Do you have a flow now?
Re: when is it too much room?
Good point, use the inner cover again and have them clean it out that way. I had not heard of using an inner cover in this way til you said it, so thank you!
I think we had a light nectar flow in December but I think it gets much less in January. I hope to go to the local meeting mid January so I can ask there. The bees are busy with something, some bringing pollen so I'm guessing that the ones coming in without pollen are bringing nectar.
Re: when is it too much room?
I'm in usda zone 9b several of the older beekeepers in my area start putting supers on their hives in January. I don't do it until the end of Feb.
We don't have a beetle problem here.