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Extracting time?

638 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  dekster
Hi folks, How long can I keep full supers on the hive? Will they be okay until fall? Can I pull them and extract later or best to leave them on the hive until extraction.Thank you from MN.
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I always leave them on until the extraction day. If bees are running out of space and you are running out of woodenware, then you will have to take and extract sooner, otherwise leave them on until you are ready.
I use to leave them on then I found out almost always the queen starts laying in the lower parts of the supers as times goes on and they consume the honey. Queen excluder is essential in my openion. However the longer I left it on I delayed treating with Oxalic acid. So I would take them off and store them. Then I found out the disadvantage of taking them off and not extracting was I ended up with wax moth laying in my honey super.
I have decided the best solution is to take them off as soon as flow is over so I can treat them and extract within a few weeks to avoid wax moth problem.
However the longer I left it on I delayed treating with Oxalic acid.
Yes, that is one problem I have not found a solution yet. We don't really have real dearth here (depends on a year), so I can't take supers off, they are still filling them right now, then once goldenrod starts they fill every cubic inch of space with honey and that ends by mid September. I would like to treat mid August, but taking supers off is too much of a hassle (I'm lazy), so I'm contemplating treating with supers on this year. Anyway I do not sell fall honey (it crystallizes way too fast to be marketable, in my opinion). Most of it goes to mead or back to the bees in spring...
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