Many were almost full so I added two more to everything. The weather next week looks perfect for nectar collecting.
I have been getting reports of many beekeepers having a stellar year for honey collection. Several beekeepers saying that their over wintered colonies have four supers full and were adding two more. Many were looking to breakout ladders to add supers.
While adding supers with ladders is very impressive, safety in the bee yard is important. If the supers get too high you can take full supers and put them on neighboring colonies if they are under performing. They will take care of the honey until it is time to extract.
Now is the time we want to exploit the bees hoarding instincts. Keep ahead of the bees with more empty supers and they will try to fill them up. If supers are full, the bees may stop collecting honey, swarm or plug up the brood boxes with honey or a combination of all three.
If the supers get full and there are no more supers there is three options.
- Extract the full supers and put them back on.
- Buy more supers
- Put on deeps for supers if you are expanding next year. The bees will get a head start next year with drawn comb to work with.