> What happens is they fill 2-3 suppers but will not finish > capping the bottom 1/3 if the combs in each super. Well, what moisture do samples of honey from the capped areas versus the uncapped area measure on a refractometer? If the honey is within spec, waiting for capping would simply delay your harvest. If the honey in the uncapped area is NOT within spec, then one must wait. I never pull supers that contain even a minority of uncapped honey without doing some spot checking with a refractometer on the uncapped frames. My personal experience has been that once the bees start capping a frame, the whole frame will be "within spec", but making any general statement about the actions of bees is a dangerous practice of pure speculation. One possible scenario is that you have had a break in the brood cycle, and the colony lacks sufficient bees of wax scale producing age to cap over the entire set of frames, but has sufficient bees of that age to partly cap over each frame. I don't know that all lines of bees start at the top of a frame when capping and work down, but my bees (NWCs) certainly do. jim (If the bands "Phish" and "Styx" merged, would they call themselves "Phish Styx"? What about "The Police" and "The Cars"?) :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::