At 12:02 PM 5/17/96 CDT, Ray Nabors wrote:
>     The most productive method of supering is to place the second super on
>     top of the brood chamber when the first super is half full or half
>     drawn out. The first super should be full and ready to come off when
>     the third super is placed over the brood nest. The second super should
>     be half full by that time. This keeps only two supers on the bees at
>     all times and encourages them to work. If you have 100 out yards with
>     25 colonies in each this method would be rediculous so you put on all
>     three at once. If you are a one apiary beekeeper, this is more often
>     than not the most productive method.
>
The next question is what do you do with the full super you take off?  Most
hobby beekeepers like myself do not have a permanent extraction area set up.
If I took off each super as it was filled, even with my 10-15 hives, I would
have to setup and cleanup at least 3-5 times each summer.  This would make
for a very mad wife as I extract in my kitchen.  As soon as I finish my
honey house, this method sounds like it would be worth trying.
 
Another possible consideration here in La is that the mass of filled supers
acts as a heat sink to stabilize the hive temp. variations with the
extremely strong sun and insulate the brood nest.  This way the bees don't
spend so much time cooling the hive and can perform other tasks.  Is this valid?