> >*  Give lots of supers (including some foundation) well before the flow
 
> IME, a super of foundation above a double-brood chamber and excluder is
> usually ignored for too long,  which can be frustrating.  You give them a
> nice new super like that and next thing you know they are taking off!  It
> often helps to super first with drawn comb, and then set subsequent
> supers w/ foundation underneath it.
 
That is very correct. I guess it never occured to me that anyone who has
read our discussions would think I meant to put on whole supers of
foundation.  But I think you are right: there are still those who think
that it is a good idea so I guesss we have to give the warning.
 
All I can say is that if one insists on using whole supers of new
foundationt, one is asking for trouble if an excluder is used, unless some
brood is raised, and ventillation minimized too for that matter.  Not to
say that whole supers of foundation cannot be drawn, but rather that the
results are unpredictable, especially if it is attempted by beginners (and
beginners are usually the only ones who attempt it other than comb
producers). Drawing whole supers of foundation reliably takes some skill
-- and luck.
 
What I was encouraging in my previous post, and what we practice, is using
a frame or two of foundation in each super.  With the new plastic
foundation that never goes stale, we just put a comb or two in each super
as we are handling the supers at extracting time the previous year.
 
> Someone once told me, "Keep a super ahead of the bees" and this seems to
> be a good rule of thumb at least up to the middle of the main flow
> (mid-late summer here).
 
Essential advice.  Once the bees are capping the top super, it takes a
strong flow to get the bees to go into any super placed on top rather
than just finishing the ones they have started and quitting work.  If the
top super is being capped, then any additional supers must go under the
occupied supers.  And, if that is the case, one might just as well extract
as put all those heavy boxes back up unless moisture is a problem.  Tip:
don't pull honey at the end of a day of heavy nectar gathering; pull the
honey early in the day to keep the moisture levels in the resulting
extracted honey lower.
 
> I wonder about the artificial swarming methods, in that the original
> colony SANS queen would take several weeks to build back up once their
> new queen starts laying.  The artificial swarm (on the old stand, with
> old queen) has very little brood initially, and so its population drops
> off pretty fast once the field bees start dwindling.  Yes, swarming is
> thwarted, but it results in two weaker colonies going into the summer
> flows.  (If the two units are re-united soon after the artificial
> swarming, maybe this would result in a strong colony again, going into
> the main part of the season.
 
We just separate the brood chambers and place each on a floor in the same
yard if we see that we are going about to lose a swarm.  Then we spread
brood a bit sometimes if they are plugged, and make sure they have lots
of room and that each half has a good cell.  One half needs it and the
other might have a queen that needs replacing.  After all they may have
been superceding, not swarming.  The two activities look similar at
swarming season.  Most of us have often seen colonies make twenty cells,
then not swarm.
 
That usually stops them.  This procedure is quick, simple and reliable and
gives us two colonies both of which usually make honey, although maybe not
as much as we would have gotten off the monster hive, but more than we
would have gotten if they had swarmed.
 
Besides, an extra colony of bees is worth about 60 pounds of honey to us.
When we split such swarming hives, we don't worry about losing some bees
to other colonies; in fact we encourage it a bit by how we place the
splits, since those emigrant bees will boost honey production in those
other hives and the migration will decrease the likelihood of losing a
swarm from one of the splits.
 
For those who don't want increase and are after honey production alone,
the splits can be stacked back into one hive in a week or two if desired,
once the swarming impulse has passed.  If that is planned, rather than
adding a second brood chamber to each half at time of splitting, the
splits should remain as singles and have their supers added over an
excluder on top of the one brood chamber.
 
I'm assuming that everyone knows that supers full of bees removed from
any hive can be moved around between hives at honey flow time without any
danger of fighting as long as excluders are used to ensure that the queens
are not noved accidentally with the supers.  (Not to say that that would
be too serious at flow time, since the bees will replace her and the break
in brood rearing could be beneficial).
 
We were talking about plugging the other day.  One thing I forgot to
mention is that young queens are harder to plug out than older ones.
Young ones somehow manage to maintain a brood area under nectar pressure,
however any queen can be plugged out, especially in nucs.  That is one
reason why many conclude that nucs cannot be wintered successfully; if
they have been plugged for any length of time, they may not have the
necessary young bees in fall.
 
As far as manual artificial swarming is concerned (shaking out the bees,
not splitting), it can work but is labour intensive right when we are very
busy -- and hard on the bees.
 
Maybe try *natural* swarming and place a few bait hives around the
neighbourhood.  Just remember to put them out early -- weeks ahead of
SWARMING SEASON.
 
Allen