Hello Josh, Steve & All,
At times bees seem unwilling to move through QE into supers. I find these
times rare with a strong hive but do see a few.

I return wet( actually with a thin coating of honey not removed by the large
extractors I use but would have been removed by giving the boxes back to the
bees to clean up)  supers in spring which gets the bees in those supers fast
to clean up the honey plus fix the comb damaged by the uncapper.

Even with wet supers at times a strong hive will simply ignore the supers.
Removing the QE usually will work ( not a practice I use due to labor
involved )but giving the bees an entrance into the supers above the excluder
usually will help also which is what I do. Small piece of wood will work and
then removed once the bees are in the supers and working. The Imirie shim
works for many ( put on with supers and I have seen as many as three in use
*during a flow* on a *strong* hive) and is sold by Brushy Mountain Bee
supply if you do not want to make your own ( certainly not rocket science!).
When the flow is in full swing I prop the tops up and let the bees enter
from the top. The old masters used to raise the hive off the bottom board
and let the bees enter the hive bottom from all sides.  I have done but
involves extra labor and time I am not willing to spend.
Keeping weeds down around the flight path is well worth the effort in honey
production (let alone in number of ticks and chiggers). Keeping weeds under
control is the first step in getting a better honey crop.
bob


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