Too Many Supers, Working Too Fast!

[Rex Piscator]

I could not have imagined how well these first year colonies have done. Using 8-frame equipment, I knew my hives might get a tad on the 'tall' side; but not this tall.

During my latest inspection when I had to add a box to each hive, I had forgotten I'd left the first frame out of the top box...and didn't notice until I'd managed to huff the top box back onto the hive!!



Here's a snapshot of me mildly panicking as I notice the 'lost' frame leaning against the hive.

And here I am gently sliding it back into place...not how I wanted to do it; I could hardly see if I was rolling any bees.




Everything seemed to go back together nicely and the two colonies quieted down by evening.

[tsmullins]

That's crazy! Good job.

[GuntherVKW]

Great work!!!! I bet you are thrilled.

I see you are using all mediums....I have two deeps full of brood, two mediums of capped honey, and a third medium of honey on its way....all ten frame equipment, first year hive, all from undrawn plastic foundation....

This is my first year at bee keeping....I started my one and only hive from a 3# package of Carniolans in late April....and my Girls still have two or three months to produce....looks like it might be a good year for both of us....just thought I'd say hello from Ohio....

[Fuzzy]

Obviously, you did not read the section that said to first dig a pit that was 3 ft deep to begin you hive. If you had, you would not have this problem.

Seriously, it is not uncommon around here, with a good hive, to get 4 or 5 supers of honey. Perhaps even more sometimes.

Fuzzy

[odfrank]

Next year, remove the stand. I have several hives at ladder stage also.

[Fuzzy]

If it's too much trouble for you, just let me know. I'll be more than happy to add and remove supers for you as long as I can keep what is inside of them

Fuzzy

[odfrank]

If it's too much trouble for you, just let me know. I'll be more than happy to add and remove supers for you as long as I can keep what is inside of them Fuzzy

I would make the same offer if I had one empty box left.

[Rex Piscator]

I got 3 boxes left; probably should order another batch....and more frames as well!

I think I got it covered mates, ...the wifie just reminded me we have a short 3 step around[but doesn't want it covered in honey and smashed bees]. Now, what I need now is a line on some way of extraction...

I need the legs of stands for pest management; ANTS! I had to wrap each leg with 2" gaffers tape and smear some tanglefoot on it to keep them at bay. They had totally over run my hive top feeder, so bad the bees vacated it[and their feed syrup for comb]. Before I started, I 'kinda' knew I'd be battling ants with all the sugar around, at least they focus their attention out there and not on our kitchen! I feel for the poor dying bees that get cast off into "Ant Apocalypse", where they're immediately surrounded and dispatched quickly. Seemed once I thwarted their entry into the hive, they seem bent on revenge.

[odfrank]

It is unlikely that you need to feed bees in El Sobrante except for a few weeks when they are starts. Lose the stand, lose the entrance block, lose the sugar and you will lose the ants.

[Tom G. Laury]

Those little black Argentine ants can be boogers. They colonize underneath some kind of protection like cement or flagstones or like that.

[oldreliable]

You could have robbing from the smaller hive going on too.. sometimes you will have one hive stacking on supers while the others not so much..good indicator you have a hive of robbers..if so split them up or destroy...once a lazy bee always a lazy bee I say

[Kazzandra]

I'm impressed with your amount of honey, but I'm more impressed you have them on what appears to be a back porch! You sure they're not getting into the kitchen and into your sugar supplies?

[Me Beeing Me]

How the heck do you prepare a hive like that for the winter?? I see the queen excluder in the middle of the 6 deeps, will you tear off the top three and winter the bottom three?

[Rex Piscator]

It's only 6 medium 8 frame supers...

I will probably leave one super on and harvest the top 2. Of course, I have this 'feeling', I'll still have to add another surplus super to each hive. The 'Yellow' hive swarmed 3 weeks ago[not the one I am pictured working] and I now have a third hive in my apiary. I followed the swarm to the fence line between 2 neighbors and got to enter the neighbor's yard, whom I know, and captured them! They clustered into a 3' x 1' x 4" thick mass which was hidden behind a rose bush, clinging to the fence. I removed some of the rose bush to expose the swarm and I gave the chain link fence a quick 'snap' and most of the mass fell right onto the landing board of a hive I quickly assembled. It was amazing to see how quickly they marched into the new hive....! I was lucky I had an extra screened bottom board and some supers or I would have lost them!

[sqkcrk]

Dude, where's your smoker?

[Intheswamp]

Dude, where's your smoker?

Look down in lower left corner in both pictures, Mark. Smoke in one, glimpse of the smoker in the other one. It seems pretty wild to me that the hives are so close to the back door...apparently the bees like being "close to home".

Ed

[bluegrass]

Nice looking hives. How much sugar have you been feeding? The easy solution to the tall hive is to extract some of the supers instead of adding more. If you fed syrup this season, discard the extracted honey. It will be adulterated with sugar.

[kincade]

Nice looking woodenware! Did you have it dipped?

[Rex Piscator]

Smoker is near the glass table, puffing away.

That doorway is actually my workshop[part of the garage]; inside I've got my woodworking tools/tinker shop! As I work on my woodenware, I'm just a few steps away from the hives.

The wood is almost all Mann Lake 'select' supers. After seeing so many 'dipped' boxes[really like the color & texture], and not being able to reproduce the look, I choose to go with a clear oil-based finish, 5-6 coats. "Varathane: Spar Urethane" was the product I used. I can get almost a 5 medium box8-frame supers covered with about a quart.

Thanks for the interest, everyone! It's been a lot of fun and interesting 'work'.

I took the top feeders off BEFORE I added supers[above excluder], so the product should be 'clean'; I hope! I've been following this site for a bit now and have read some great management techniques. Thanks Barry, All!

[bluegrass]

I took the top feeders off BEFORE I added supers[above excluder], so the product should be 'clean'; I hope! I've been following this site for a bit now and have read some great management techniques. Thanks Barry, All!

What do you have on the bottom? Looks like a bottom feeder. The bees will move stores around the hive, so some adulteration occurs anyway.. If you stopped feeding before you supered that is a pretty nice crop you have there..