I under super all the time . Our nectar flow was real strong this 2021 season. Once I saw the bees heavily working the first super I added the second one underneath, then the following week I saw them working the second super then I placed an empty under the first two , THEN , the next week I continued to add a fourth. Then I left them alone for two weeks and THEN added a fifth under all those four supers. Two weeks later I pulled those four supers and extracted that honey and placed all those drawn comb back on top of the other hives . I got 11.5 gallons from those four supers and the fifth super is almost filled. I’m using medium supers. Those suckers were heavy. Especially trying to put the fullest one back on top . I use double deep brood chambers .
Regarding single brood box management-Do you ever/regularly pull up a frame or two of brood from the brood area and put them above the excluder and replace with drawn comb? In an effort to prevent swarming.
That's the best way to keep swarming from happening. Keep rotating frames up unit the hive settles or rotate those frames to another hive that needs help.
That can help quite a lot. I don't make a habit of regularly doing this, the bees will keep the single pretty free of honey and a 10 frame single without honey is more than enough space for the queen. If it does get clogged though, I will remove frames and sometimes put them above an excluder (if they're honey) or make a nuc, or feed a light hive, whatever use I can find for it. My effort is in avoiding this necessity, however.
More power to you to handle those deeps when they’re full , 70-80 lbs . Medium supers work better for my back . I use double deep hive setup. I tried the single deep method but couldn’t stay on top of swarming . It was eating up my time and waring me out constantly having to check for swarm prep . So I decided to go back to the double deep method . I stopped using queen excluders altogether. I had one time the queen laid in the honey super that’s right above the brood box . I found her and placed her back down into the bottom brood box and by the time she reached the top box to lay , the brood in the honey super had emerged and the bees filled that area with nectar.
Those boxes are crazy heavy, and over the course of the next couple of years we plan to invest in shallows or mediums for honey. The "all deep" idea was great when we had 15 hives and I was in my 20's. Not so much anymore. Singles are less swarmy than I think people give them credit for, as long as you kick the swarm instinct out in the spring and keep the area above the excluder largely open, it's pretty easy. Doubles are easier though, if swarming is the main thing you're trying to avoid.
I've heard that quite a lot in comments, from Delaware to South Carolina and Kentucky, the nectar has been good this year. I'm happy to hear it. We have tons of rocks, I have rocks in the back of that truck, lol. I just was curious as to where the rock that was on that hive must have gone, each hive should have one on the cover.
Hi Bret, I went through my colonies today and pulled 2 medium supers of capped honey. I already extracted like 4-5 mediums and have about 180lbs so far. I should be over 200lbs with the next 2 mediums.
@@BKBees I have like 240-250lbs now - 4 five gallon buckets worth. I don't really have customers per say. In the past I have given it away and asked for a donation and in some cases for the person to buy some mason jars. I have to look into making labels and selling it. I have to ask around what everyone gets for honey as well I am bad at pricing it. I have sold a few buckets last year to someone but I think it was too little - he was only willing to pay $4 a pound. I think I shorted myself in that case because I think he turned around and resold it for $12 a pound but not really sure.
Yep, unfortunately I do. The last bunch of years I've tried to get on top of the mites in the winter, but the lower peninsula is so bad for mites that I've not been able to get through a flow without treating. Now that I'm in the UP, I do plan to try that again, OA in December/January in hopes of knocking them down enough to not have to do June treatments.
The season differential is crazy. You’re stacking on supers for your flow and we just pulled the rest of our supers this morning cause our flow is over.
Where are you at? Agreed no matter what your answer is. I have a video coming out in the next couple of days that talks about the crazy differences I see between yards, so, it is very regional.
I've run into so many different 'suggestions" that I'm really confused. Why are you adding a honey box, then putting the current one back on? Due to my inability to obtain more boxes and frames, I've taken to pulling the fully capped honey frames, extracting the honey, and using them on other hives (yes, I do freeze them first). doesn't it make more sense to remove them so you can treat the hives? The shortage of available materials, ie., wood, (thanks Biden, BTW) has caused a shortage, at least in our area, so I've had to get creative. thoughts? am I making sense or are there are other suggestions you can give me? I'm listening.
Well the current boxes aren't ready for harvest, but they need more space to put honey, so I add boxes. This is the standard practice, during the flow hives get tall with honey boxes. It's not feasible to only replace what you're pulling off, unless you're okay with losing swarms.
They're drawn out. There aren't too many implications either way when they're this tall and spread out. If it was the first box added above the brood nest and it was foundation I'd run them as a double, rather than adding it above the excluder, because a single with foundation on top is bound to get clogged with honey. Otherwise, if it was foundation I'd just add it in the same way.
I used to swear by upper entrances, and that's the reason why I own so many inner/outer setups. At this point though I've lacked on the upper entrance thing quite a bit and seen the same success over winter... So other than a minor amount of added insulation, there's not too many good reasons why I'm not running migratory tops.
@@BKBees gotcha! Last year my first (and only) hive had an inner cover with a notch and a telescopic cover. Still had some moisture issues in winter. This year I've expanded and bought only migratory covers and want to make sure I don't regret it going into winter by having moisture issues and the bees get wet.
No you won't have any issues. Keep the lower entrance wide open and free of dead bees and they'll be fine. Happy, heavy and healthy is what I always say, which sort of implies don't worry too much about the other stuff, like upper entrances, moisture, that kind of thing. Make sure they're healthy, low mite counts before the winter bees start being reared, heavy, at least 100lbs of sugar/honey, and happy, a view of the southern sky for warmth in the winter, no clogs of dead bees in the entrance, no huge holes in the boxes, that kind of thing. If you make sure of that, you'll be happy in the spring, regardless of the types of covers you used.
@@BKBees thanks very much!!! Just watched the new video about moving from hobby to business. Very informative!! Appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge!!
Another great video. Do you have a spinning machine that will accept Deep frames? Mine is maxed out at Medium separators. If so - what brand of separator do you have?
Yes, we just donated our old 3 frame (that accepted deeps, it was a Mann Lake model) to our old bee club. We purchased an 18 frame Maxant electric extractor that takes deeps radially, no need to flip the frames.
Tang, it offers the extra space in a way that really makes it difficult for the bees to #1 think they're cramped and #2 ignore the new extra space. There's nothing wrong with top supering if you're running doubles, in my opinion, but there's definitely nothing wrong with just under supering all the time, no matter what.
