Many beekeepers add a lot of empty supers, with drawn combs, at the
beggining of the nectar season. I think there's little doubt about
the properness of this action, since so many researches have pointed
out a greater hoard tendency when there's a lot of empty combs in the
hive and nectar coming in. The bees also take advantage of all that
space by spreading the collected nectar widely, which induces a
faster dehydration.

But I've noticed that, with unlimited space (gathered nectar <<
available space), my bees sometimes tend to leave most of the honey
scattered, capping only a minor part, especially next to brood. Anna
Maurizio, in Eva Crane's "Honey: a Comprehensive Survey", describes
the process of filling and capping the honey cells in some detail,
but doesn't give a clue about what exactly stimulates the bees to
"regather" the scattered honey and then cap the cells.

I've read that honey moisture is the criterium bees used, but it
can't be the only one, since a lot of uncapped honey may sometimes
present the same (low or high) moisture level as the capped honey -
and may sometimes be left uncapped for a long time, even after the
flow (my own observation). 

Lack of empty space surely is a motivation to regather the scattered
honey, as well as initially filling the cells whith a lot more of
unripened nectar (at a cost of a long delay in dehydration). But what
if the space is unlimited? Are environmental conditions important? 

Harvesting uncapped honey is usually not a problem, provided its
moisture is low enough. It is even easier, since little or no
uncapping is necessary, and it probably maximizes the bees
productivity, because they don't have to eat more honey to make the
cappings. But it's more labor consuming, because one has to handle
more supers and combs, and the beeswax from the cappings may be
important to the beekeeper. So what is better, only capped combs or
mixed (capped/uncapped) combs? Of course the answer will vary.

For those who'd like to get only capped combs, is there a way to
force the bees to regather and cap the scattered honey? I've tried to
stack wet frames (after extraction) next to a hive, leaving a narrow
passage for the bees. I hoped they would cross the passage and
"rescue" their lost honey. That indeed happened, but it seemed that
the bees started to consider the new stack of supers as an extension
of their hive, and it became full of bees (not the queen) since then.
I wonder what would happen if I did the same with, let's say, half of
the (uncapped) supers, before extracting. Would the bees take the
honey back, next to the brood? Or would they do nothing, only adapt
to a weirder hive configuration? Or, on the other side, how distant
I'd have to put the uncapped combs so the bees would just take the
honey back?

What do you think? What makes bees cap honey?

João



	



	
		
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