ADDING SUPERS

[papabear]

I live in south Louisiana and was wanting to know when is the best time to add supers? I have one colony with two brood boxes. Should I feed, give pollen patties. In others words what do I do next. I saw saturday they are bringing lots of pollen of different colors. Anything will help. Last year I lost my colony to a swarm, I don't want to lose this colony. This is a feral swarm that found my boxes in the barn and now it is full of bee and there is honey. I havn't opened the box because I was afraid I would mess up somthing. Thanks

[Michael Bush]

As soon as the bees have filled the boxes they have to about 80%, I'd add the supers.

[Brian D. Bray]

When supering it is better to super too soon than too late.  Too late usually indicates the hive has begun to get cramped quarters and they turn to swarm mode.  As long as they have plenty of room to draw comb they will continue to work and build hive strength.  Once they stop building comb they will switch to swarm mode.