Hello from Missouri

[potionlady]

I have been keeping bees for about 3 years now and have not really had any success with getting a honey crop.  I have bees in 2 deep supers, but they do not fill the shallow supers above the queen excluder.  I have read and read and can not figure out what I am doing wrong.  So I decided I needed help.  I am hoping this forum will teach me what I need to know.  I love the bees.  They are great fun to watch. but I would like to get some honey also.  Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for any suggestions that you might have. :)

[Robo]

Assuming your supers have foundation in them,  you need to remove the queen excluder at least until they start drawing out the foundation and storing nectar.  Bees will not squeeze thru a excluder unless there is something on the other side to entice them.  Foundation won't do it.

[johnnybigfish]

 Hey Robo,
How about if she feeds with a top feeder?
 I did that most all of last yeaR and i got honey which tasted like honey. (oh yeh,...No excluder at all)...But my honey did crystalize pretty quick(6 months)..I turned it back to honey by nuking it 10 to 15 seconds at a time, til it turned wet again.
 Last year was my first year of bees. I still have them this year so far! :)

your friend,
john

[dpence]

What part of Missouri?  What type of foundation are you using? 

David

[Robo]

Hey Robo,
How about if she feeds with a top feeder?
 I did that most all of last yeaR and i got honey which tasted like honey. (oh yeh,...No excluder at all)...But my honey did crystalize pretty quick(6 months)..I turned it back to honey by nuking it 10 to 15 seconds at a time, til it turned wet again.
 Last year was my first year of bees. I still have them this year so far! :)

your friend,
john

That kind of defeats the purpose and I'm not sure they would go thru the excluder to get the syrup if there is a flow on anyway.

I beat you also think the store bought maple syrup taste like maple syrup too :-P

[johnnybigfish]

Man Robo,
You know me pretty well! :-D
  Yep, I used to think walmart had maple syrup trees back in the warehouse.
 Then I met Janelle...She's from just across the lake from Burlington Vermont.
 I NOW know the difference between real maple syrup and walmarts. I also know the price difference, especially down here :shock:
 This was my first honey, but had earlier been led to believe that it wouldnt be fit to eat I was also led to believe there would be no honey till the second season.
 It tested better than Walmrts....Then again, since my bees made it, I may have tasted like Prestone and I would have said it tasted good :-D.
 Heh heh heh....I'd send ya some but I'm just about to finish the very last bottle I have from last year
 The other day I tasted this years honey....I ran inside and told my wife, "Hey JANELLE!! With this honey I think I CAN win the honey hunt contest!!".
 I probably will, too......I havent heard of a single person who's gonna participate. I havent had a response yet either since I inquired what the prizes were going to be :roll:.....Hmmmm,...I've also been wondering,....Whats a guy like me gonna do If I do win the contest?...Supply the entire nation with the best honey in the country with only 6 hives of bees????

your friend,
john

[potionlady]

From the Lake of the Ozarks region.  My supers have the Duragilt foundation.  The bees have filled one super, but have completely avoided the second.  It has been on for about 3 weeks now.  I looked again yesterday and nothing in it.  One more thing, they have started building comb on the queen excluder.  I was going to take it out today and clean it.  Unless someone tells me not to.  What do you all think?  I already love this forum.  Wish I would have found it a few years back.  Thanks so much!!! :lol:

[dpence]

Try taking the excluder out, and let them draw a little comb on the frames in the honey super.

David

[suprstakr]

Queen excluder is bad in my hives . If you got one super filled take 5 frames from it and put them in second super. Put an empty frame in between full all the way accross . Make sure the second super frames are ofsett with the first ,(called checkerboarding) Then get your bucket ready.

[DennisB]

I have to agree with David. Get rid of the excluder. I have several in my barn I never use. If the queen does start laying in the first super that means she might need additional space. If she does lay in the super and you want o harvest that honey, use the excluder for the time it takes for the brood to hatch and then harvest the honey.  Good luck.

Dennis

[Cindi]

Potionlady.  Get rid of that excluder, allow the queen the run of the hive.  If she lays eggs in the honey super, that is OK, they will hatch out and the bees will fill it with nectar.  Also, get some frames with honey in it, as was already mentioned, and put it into the honey super.  This baits the colony to move into that honey super, we can trick the bees sometimes into doing what we want them to do.  A box of foundation acts as a honey barrier many times with bees, alternate frames of foundation and frames of honey, that should help you immensely, good luck and have that most wonderful day, Cindi