In <[log in to unmask]>, on 06/04/01
   at 10:37 PM, [log in to unmask] said:

>Rod,
>You don't super bees by a calendar.  You put a super in place just before
>the start of a nectar flow your locale, and you add another when the
>first is more than half full.

George, in your "Pink Pages" you suggest putting more than one super on at
the beginning of the Spring nectar flow. Why do you suggest as above to
add supers one at a time?

From the "Pink Pages":
"However, a major nectar flow can start as early as April 1 5th here near
the nation's capitol of Washington DC, and surely by May 1st.  Supers of
drawn comb have little or no value sitting in your garage or basement, so
add 4 supers of drawn comb to that one super on the bees on INCOME TAX
DAY, April 15th; and don't forget some entrances in the super area, either
Imirie shims or holes in the supers, and an upper entrance.  This will
keep the forager bees from "drudging back and forth" through the brood
chamber and creating MORE congestion than already exists there.  I have
been asked "where" I put Imirie Shims: On top of the queen excluder are
two supers, then a shim, another 2 supers and then a second shim, then the
5th super topped with an upper entrance cut in the inner cover."

          "Lastly, for those that still don't understand " WHY,5 SUPERS?"
Nectar is thin and about 80% water, but there has to be a lot of storage
space to hold all this nectar until the bees can ripen it into thick honey
that is only about 16-18% water.  If there is not enough super space to
store all this thin watery nectar, the bees will stop gathering nectar and
prepare to swarm.  If your colony swarms during a major nectar flow, it
was not a bad queen or crazy bees, it was I 00% YOUR FAULT, because you
did not provide enough super space AHEAD OF TIME."

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