In a few weeks, I'll check the middle boxes to see how full they are.
Showing posts with label supers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label supers. Show all posts
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Supers on the Hives
In a few weeks, I'll check the middle boxes to see how full they are.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Supers
I put a jar of 1:1 sugar syrup upside down over the screened opening in the center of my inner covers and then one of these supers around it. It protects the jar, the bees can't build comb in it and when the bees are ready to start making me lots of honey, I can put frames in them and use them for honey supers. I can put extra frames in them for storage if I need to - the jars are about 3 frames width, so I can still store 6-7 frames in each box if I needed to.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Serious Burr Comb
One of the first laws of beekeeping is this: Bees will do what they will do.
You just have to go along with it.
The bees in the Tardis filled up their lower hive body and then built honey comb between the tops of the frames and the lids. That can be a problem. If they get too full up, then the hive makes a new queen and they get ready to split the colony. The old queen takes a bunch of bees and they go elsewhere to start a new colony.
Beekeepers don't want that, so we watch carefully to make sure that the bees don't get honeybound and crowded. When they're almost full up, we add more supers [hive boxes] so that the bees have more room.
We have a lot of goldenrod around here and as long as we get rain, we can have a very nice autumn nectar flow, which means extra honey for the bees and for us. We added two supers of empty frames above the main hive body, crossed our fingers that the bees would prefer that to building between the layers and waited.
When we opened the hive a couple of weeks later, we found this.
And this.
Bees will do what they will do.
Even though the bees had no problem building their own comb on the foundationless frames in the lower chamber, they acted like they were totally confused with the supers.
We cut the burr comb out, explained to the bees what we wanted them to do, and then cut some old comb from a lower frame and put it in one of the upper frames. That worked. Next time we checked, they were building in the frames the way we wanted them, too.
So, my advice to new beeks is to make sure you have some sample comb in your supers so the bees get the hint. If your super frames are smaller than your brood frames, then you have a couple of options. We used the first option for the Tardis and it worked. We tried the second one in our other hive with good success.
1. You can do a simple cut out of a section of comb that's the size of your smaller frame from a bigger frame and rubber band it in place. Put it in your new super.
2. You can put a small frame at one end of the brood chamber below along side your bigger frames [second frame in from the very end] and let them fill that up. Then you put that frame into the new super. Note: They'll likely build burr comb on the bottom of the short frame, but that's easy to cut off and you can harvest it or rubber band it in another frame for them to keep using.
You just have to go along with it.
The bees in the Tardis filled up their lower hive body and then built honey comb between the tops of the frames and the lids. That can be a problem. If they get too full up, then the hive makes a new queen and they get ready to split the colony. The old queen takes a bunch of bees and they go elsewhere to start a new colony.
Beekeepers don't want that, so we watch carefully to make sure that the bees don't get honeybound and crowded. When they're almost full up, we add more supers [hive boxes] so that the bees have more room.
We have a lot of goldenrod around here and as long as we get rain, we can have a very nice autumn nectar flow, which means extra honey for the bees and for us. We added two supers of empty frames above the main hive body, crossed our fingers that the bees would prefer that to building between the layers and waited.
When we opened the hive a couple of weeks later, we found this.
And this.
Bees will do what they will do.
Even though the bees had no problem building their own comb on the foundationless frames in the lower chamber, they acted like they were totally confused with the supers.
We cut the burr comb out, explained to the bees what we wanted them to do, and then cut some old comb from a lower frame and put it in one of the upper frames. That worked. Next time we checked, they were building in the frames the way we wanted them, too.
So, my advice to new beeks is to make sure you have some sample comb in your supers so the bees get the hint. If your super frames are smaller than your brood frames, then you have a couple of options. We used the first option for the Tardis and it worked. We tried the second one in our other hive with good success.
1. You can do a simple cut out of a section of comb that's the size of your smaller frame from a bigger frame and rubber band it in place. Put it in your new super.
2. You can put a small frame at one end of the brood chamber below along side your bigger frames [second frame in from the very end] and let them fill that up. Then you put that frame into the new super. Note: They'll likely build burr comb on the bottom of the short frame, but that's easy to cut off and you can harvest it or rubber band it in another frame for them to keep using.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Tardis Supers
A beehive consists of a set of boxes. The bees use the bottom boxes to put their brood in. That's called the brood chamber. They only need a couple of deep boxes or maybe three medium boxes to keep their brood in.
A beekeeper puts extra boxes on top for the bees to fill with honey. Those boxes are called supers. The very same type of box can be used as brood chamber or as a super. The name refers to what the bees use it for.
The Tardis is a horizontal hive body. It's the same size as two boxes side by side. We love that arrangement because when you take the lid off, it's easy to see inside and you can see all of the brood chamber at once without worrying about accidentally killing the queen when you're taking one brood box off the other.
The Tardis still needs supers though so the bees don't feel crowded and so they can collect honey. If it ever rains here again, we will have a lot of goldenrod and a significant nectar flow. We have acres of goldenrod that should produce a lot of honey for the bees to overwinter on - if it rains.
Once the frames in the brood chamber are 80% full, it's time to add supers. This is what the Tardis looks like with its supers.
The box on the bottom is all one box. There are two boxes stacked on top, under the lid. This gives the bees plenty of space for honey but the smaller boxes will be easier for us to lift. Honey is heavy!
Here's a closer look at the center entrances. The bees are loving the extra space to come in and out of. There is usually a cloud of bees waiting in front. This is a very busy hive.
Notice they like the left one better. It's the original one.
A beekeeper puts extra boxes on top for the bees to fill with honey. Those boxes are called supers. The very same type of box can be used as brood chamber or as a super. The name refers to what the bees use it for.
The Tardis is a horizontal hive body. It's the same size as two boxes side by side. We love that arrangement because when you take the lid off, it's easy to see inside and you can see all of the brood chamber at once without worrying about accidentally killing the queen when you're taking one brood box off the other.
The box on the bottom is all one box. There are two boxes stacked on top, under the lid. This gives the bees plenty of space for honey but the smaller boxes will be easier for us to lift. Honey is heavy!
Notice they like the left one better. It's the original one.
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