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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Sender:
Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
Supering practice & 8-frame spacing
From:
Joel Govostes <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 3 Jul 1996 16:37:09 -0500
Reply-To:
Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (34 lines)
I have arrived at the following routine as regards supering, without using
excluders.  Granted, it's not perfect, but I am pleased with the consistent
results I'm getting.
 
Upon reversing the position of the two brood chambers in late April - early
May, I add the first 6 5/8" honey super, with 8 combs evenly spaced.  I add
no more supers until there is a honey barrier across this super.  This
happens soon enough.  In some colonies the queen will go up and lay some
eggs in the honey super, but by the time she does it usually contains a
fair bit of honey above as she has been kept occupied by the space in the
two brood chambers.
 
Once there is a layer of honey in that first super I can add two at a time
above it, without worrying about the queen going up there.  What becomes of
the brood that sometimes occupies part of the first super?  Well
eventually, certainly by the fall flow, the brood nest is pushed back down
by the nectar storage and this super is harvested, free of brood.
 
I like this approach much better than the excluder practice I used for many
years.  The bees "take" to the first super right away instead sulking under
the excluder, clogging the brood chambers and getting so swarmy.  On the
other hand, if I have hived swarms or new nucs and a good flow on, I keep
them on one brood box and use an excluder under the supers.  Then they
receive a second brood chamber for winter stores later, to be filled
(ideally) on the fall nectar sources.
 
BTW, revisiting the 8-frame idea, I don't understand what drawback there
could possibly be to increased wax content of the harvest.  It's a bonus!
Wax is valuable, after all, and the bees of a certain age have a propensity
to produce wax anyway, as a response to incoming nectar.  (Somewhere I read
that the wax scales are just discarded if not used, and that seems a
waste.)  This comb building could also do much to lessen their desire to
swarm.  Top supering seems most efficient overall and easiest.

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