[Riley Beckner]

There's a good nectar flow right now the bees have all of the supers with drawn comb almost full. I am going to add another super with foundation. Would it be best to place the supers with foundation over the brood nest with the supers of honey on top?

 

[MikeJ]

I have read foundation/foundationless should be supered over the brood nest.
As far as I know you can always under-super (comb producer do it). Over-supering is just easier.

Mike

 

[indypartridge]

There's a good nectar flow right now..

Then it won't make much difference whether you super top or bottom.

 

[RayMarler]

I think I'd super it on top, but swap out a frame with the super under it to use as a bait frame to get them up and drawing more evenly. This way works well and is easier on me back.

Supering on the bottom is for helping to reduce travel stains on comb honey production, and I'd swap a frame with the box above it as a bait frame when doing it this way. When they get the top super capped, pull it to get the comb while it's white, adding the new super on the bottom.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Would it be best to place the supers with foundation over the brood nest with the supers of honey on top?

Yes if there's still a flow. Even with a flow on I find that bees will ignore foundation when above full supers. I have all my comb honey produced above the brood chamber and below the almost full supers.

 

[Riley Beckner]

I decided to bait the supers with a frame and bottom super. The basswoods and sour woods are blooming so they might make a few frames of comb honey if they don't completely fill them. I have another hive that is already top supered with foundation I'll watched and see which they draw out the quickest. Thank everyone for the help.

 

[ReddingRidge]

What was the result? Better to Super under the full honey supers or on top of the filled supers to encourage frame drawing?

I decided to bait the supers with a frame and bottom super. The basswoods and sour woods are blooming so they might make a few frames of comb honey if they don't completely fill them. I have another hive that is already top supered with foundation I'll watched and see which they draw out the quickest. Thank everyone for the help.

 

[Gray Goose]

There's a good nectar flow right now the bees have all of the supers with drawn comb almost full. I am going to add another super with foundation. Would it be best to place the supers with foundation over the brood nest with the supers of honey on top?

sure that would work.
every persons best "idea" is likely somewhat different.
if the super is having some honey in each frame then sure lift it and place the new one over the brood nest and add the other on top.

GG

 

[elmer_fud]

What was the result? Better to Super under the full honey supers or on top of the filled supers to encourage frame drawing?

This thread is 10 years old, and reddingridge has not been online in about 5 years, so I would not expect a response.

That said, I always place my supers on top. I typically add new ones under the partially fllled one or mix the empty frames in with the drawn ones. I have not tried putting the super under the brood nest, and I suspect the hive may just move the brood nest downward since they naturally want the honey above them in the winter.

 

[ReddingRidge]

Thanks elmer_fud, we are keeping this post alive i guess...

Do you put the new super (of foundation only) on top of the Brood Nest but under the the drawn -nectar filled Supers or above the filled supers.

I have 3 filled supers (one is fully capped) and added a new super of foundation only above the brood nest but under the 3 filled supers. I was originally not using a queen excluder, but since I supered I found that the queen had started laying in the newly drawn comb in the foundation super, so I moved the queen down and added the excluder. Any suggestions of how to manage this better? I think there are only a few weeks left of the "summer flow" before we hit the July dearth.

I was told somewhere to add frames of drawn comb on the outsides (1,10) to help the bees climb up to the upper supers as well?

Thank you for the responses,

This thread is 10 years old, and reddingridge has not been online in about 5 years, so I would not expect a response.

That said, I always place my supers on top. I typically add new ones under the partially fllled one or mix the empty frames in with the drawn ones. I have not tried putting the super under the brood nest, and I suspect the hive may just move the brood nest downward since they naturally want the honey above them in the winter.

 

[elmer_fud]

I would mix the undrawn frames between capped frames in the bottom 2-3 boxes of the supers. I typically alternate drawn and capped frames to get them drawn out well.

If you put undrawn frames between drawn uncapped frames you will probably end up with really deep frames on the drawn foundation and almost nothing drawn on the new frames.