Wintering question - left extracted supers on too long

**MikeK** · 10-25-2010, 12:12 AM

I extracted a month ago and put the (3) supers back on to have them cleaned. Left them on too long and they started filling them but not very much. Just a little bit. I realize I should have taken them off sooner and bagged them for the winter. Can I bag them with the little they have in them and just have the bees clean them out in the spring or will storing them this way ruin them?

Should I try an inner cover placed between the excluder and the supers to see if they will move what little they have started to store in the supers down to wherever they may?

First winter for me. Plenty of stores.

Thanks,

Mike

**EastCarolinaBee** · 10-25-2010, 05:16 AM

Mike, I've had the same issues and had success two ways. First, take the excluder off and place the supers on top of the inner cover, check back in a couple days and the girls should have it bone dry !!Second, I've placed the supers away from the hives and let the bee's do the work from afar. Depends on the weather !!

**criscojohn** · 10-25-2010, 06:48 AM

We're in the same boat! We left the extracted supers on for only 4 days, but when we checked yesterday, they were already re-capping and actually filling cells with pollen and nectar. We put them on above the inner cover, too. I guess the bees didn't get the memo they're only supposed to clean out the frames, not refill them! So we broke all the rules, took the supers off, re-scratched the cells and set the frames out to be robbed. I guess we can get away with that this year, because we only have 1 hive. We'll have to come up with another plan next year when we add another hive. Seems like it's a common thing. Maybe because of the weather?