Adding Supers

714 Views 2 Replies 2 Participants Last post by WRLCPA, Jun 9, 2014

WRLCPA

Discussion Starter · Jun 9, 2014

I understand this topic has been written about through this blog extensively and I have read a lot of it, but I want to add a twist to the question of when to add.

My situation is this. I installed two nucs into two 10 frame deeps roughly two weeks ago. Here in Vermont the summer flow starts roughly NOW as I understand it (1st year bee keeping). The two hives have not been drawing very much comb in the deeps, so I basically have the original 5 frames plus a little comb in each. So basically they need to draw out another deep before I can hope to put on medium supers.

My question is this, should I add deeps now ahead of the flow and move two of the original nuc frames up hoping to jump start the second deep?

I'm sure hoping they can draw out the second deep and get into the honey supers this year.

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TWall

· #2 · Jun 9, 2014

Wait until they start to draw out the remaining frames in the deep they are in. Once they start drawing out the outer two frames add another box of foundation. Often the bees won't draw out the outside half of the outer frames and you may have to turn them so the undrawn side is now on the inside.

Sometimes if you add foundation before they have drawn all the frames in a box the bees will move up and begin drawing in the new box. They are bugs and will do what they want.

Once your flow starts they should start drawing more comb out. Look for nice white comb.

Tom

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WRLCPA

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jun 9, 2014

Thanks Tom. I am attempting to go all foundationless with only the five nuc frames having foundation at the moment. I will remove the foundation frames with splits next season

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