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| The new white comb being built is a sure indicator that a nectar flow is underway |
I was out checking all my bees yesterday before it got hot. I removed and entrance reducers that I had in on some package bees I started.
Supers were added to stay ahead of the nectar flow. Bees looked good. A couple hives were not ready for supers but should be in about a week. I did have a couple overwintered colonies that are packed with bees and are making honey.
I have talked to several beekeepers that have 1 - 4 supers full of honey already. One beekeeper that lives by an old golf course has four supers of Black Locust honey. He says that the old golf course was full of the Black Locust trees on their fairways and the trees were covered with flowers. He was out of supers and stopped by to purchase more.
The nectar flow is on in most metro locations. Supers should be on now if your hives are ready. Now with large populations of bees in the hives, everything can change very quickly. If you are adding a third deep, the bees can draw it out and fill it in about 10 - 14 days. A super can have all the comb drawn out, filled with honey and capped in a weeks time with a strong nectar flow. Stay ahead of the bees, supers go on two at a time.
When adding supers with new foundation, always put them on top of the brood boxes. For instance, if you have two supers on, they are filling fast and it is time to add two more. Remove the two full supers, put on the new foundation supers, and put the full supers on top of the new ones.
If you are getting too many supers on your colonies, which is a good problem to have. The hive is too tall. You can put full supers on other colonies that are not doing as good. The bees in lower producing hive will take care of the honey until you need to extract.
As Basil Furgala said " You can't make honey if your supers are in the garage"
