Author Topic: brood in a super (Read 4306 times)

mizkidmas · « **on:** May 04, 2006, 02:56:21 pm »

I have brood in a super that I left on my hive over the winter. Should I move the super to the lowest level? I want to empty the super so I can use it for harvest this year. Not sure if the queen is in there...what should I do?

Finsky · « **Reply #1 on:** May 04, 2006, 04:46:05 pm »

Quote from: mizkidmas

I want to empty the super so I can use it for harvest this year.

You surely need more boxes than that super. :P

Let them raise new bees in peace. When summer goes on and you add more boxes, you may keep that super up. Bees emerge and they fill combs with honey.

If you put down that super, bees fill it pollen.

What time of season you have there?

When you add fourth box, put it between brood deep and super. Bees fill combs with honey from top downward. They keep nectar all around so it rippens.

mizkidmas · « **Reply #2 on:** May 04, 2006, 11:11:23 pm »

I'm in spring. I know, I know...I'm a tad late. Live and learn. I will get another super on and put it where you told me in between second brood and super now on...so do I leave this super on indefinitely now?

Finsky · « **Reply #3 on:** May 04, 2006, 11:39:06 pm »

Quote from: mizkidmas

so do I leave this super on indefinitely now?

It is important tha you do not rearrange brood area in spring. It is same where your super is and let it be on. Let colony grow and follow how colony developes.

Michael Bush · « **Reply #4 on:** May 05, 2006, 08:36:01 am »

>I have brood in a super that I left on my hive over the winter. Should I move the super to the lowest level?

I would leave it.

> I want to empty the super so I can use it for harvest this year. Not sure if the queen is in there...what should I do?

You could find her, move her to the deep below and put on an excluder. But I would not do that unless there is some brood in the deep. If there's not, put a couple of the shallower frames of brood down there with her.

Personally, I'd get rid of the deep and jsut use the supers. :)

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeseightframemedium.htm

mizkidmas · « **Reply #5 on:** May 05, 2006, 06:33:28 pm »

or.....could i just leave it the way it is, and put an excluder on and stack supers on top?
How tall can I make this hive?
I mean, if I keep giving them more and more room, they will grow in numbers and does that mean I will be looking at maybe making a split, catching a swarm? :?
or do the birth and death rates just equal out?
currently I have 2 deeps and one super.
thanks for the help :D

Michael Bush · « **Reply #6 on:** May 05, 2006, 06:59:15 pm »

>or.....could i just leave it the way it is, and put an excluder on and stack supers on top?

Or stack the supers on top and leave out the excluder. :) That's what I'd do.

>How tall can I make this hive?

Do you have a step ladder?

>I mean, if I keep giving them more and more room, they will grow in numbers and does that mean I will be looking at maybe making a split, catching a swarm?

More bees = more honey.

>or do the birth and death rates just equal out?

Eventually if you give them enough room.

>currently I have 2 deeps and one super.
thanks for the help

Many people run three deeps for brood and a good queen will lay in all of them. I run all the mediums the queen wants because I don't use an excluder. Sometimes she lays in four or five.

mizkidmas · « **Reply #7 on:** May 05, 2006, 07:05:42 pm »

I'm sorry if I sound daft, but I cannot understand why the queen will not continue to lay eggs in more supers I put on top of the one I have there.
Will she not continue to move up?
I like the idea of not using anything if I don't have to..(excluder), but how?
Do the workers just get there first and start packing nectar away before she gets there to lay? :roll:

TREBOR · « **Reply #8 on:** May 05, 2006, 07:37:41 pm »

Quote

Do the workers just get there first and start packing nectar away before she gets there to lay?

from what I understand they will start filling and use the nectar and honey to push her laying back down....later!

Michael Bush · « **Reply #9 on:** May 05, 2006, 09:00:33 pm »

>I'm sorry if I sound daft, but I cannot understand why the queen will not continue to lay eggs in more supers I put on top of the one I have there.

She may if they need the room to expand the brood nest. She may also move down into the deep if they need the room to expand the brood nest. She may also swarm if there isn't any room to expand the brood nest.

>Will she not continue to move up?

She will try to find enough room for an adequate, and consolidated brood nest.

>I like the idea of not using anything if I don't have to..(excluder), but how?

Just say no.

>Do the workers just get there first and start packing nectar away before she gets there to lay?

The workers, and the queen want a consolidated brood nest. If they move up into the next box it's because they need the room, not because the queen is willy nilly laying eggs everywhere. Why do you care if she does? If she needs the room, better to have them not swarm.

Jack Parr · « **Reply #10 on:** May 06, 2006, 08:12:12 am »

Thinking about the birth and death rates of bees equaling out ? Would that not be a zero sum game :?:

It seems to me if that were a fact there would be no bees. Somehow the bees manage to produce enough new bees to swarm for their species survival :?: and increase.

However it does not follow that all swarms will be successful or that the colony that did cast the swarm will itself survive.

mizkidmas · « **Reply #11 on:** May 06, 2006, 03:20:54 pm »

I'm not sure what the bee statistics are. I know that my 3# box o' bees I started with is about double (probably more) But does it continue at the same rate of increase,or does it begin to slow due to queen age (and other variables)?At which point the bees will either swarm or supercede or both.

I'm just wondering how big the average bee hive is...and technically, according to Michael Bush, I could keep adding layers up to the heavens. That's fine if you're a commercial beekeeper...but if you're a backyarder like me when do you say ok 2 hives are enough. or 3. or 4.? do I keep buying new hives each year and expand or do I let them swarm as nature intended, or can I leave 2 deep and super on and just harvest.
I'm just speaking purely from 'what can I manage' stand point.
Am I making any sense or just babbling stupidity

Please tell me if I'm way off base. :)

TwT · « **Reply #12 on:** May 06, 2006, 09:31:03 pm »

swarming is a natural way of expanding for bee's, ever hive will do it sooner or later, queens are different in how big a population a hive will get, I would say on the average a hive will reach about 60 to 75 thousand bee's, some queens will have a hive of 80 thousand or more, some will have less, its all ends up being the queens you have IMHO!!! This is the way I see it, I have done no studies but it sounds like pure common since to me that ever queen is different, some of the other guy's might disagree with me but I have 12 hives and not every hive is equal, I have some hives booming when others are not and when the flow starts some hives are ready and some are behind due to me or something else..... i'm tired of typing, this is something that I could go on about..... ;)

Kris^ · « **Reply #13 on:** May 06, 2006, 09:48:22 pm »

Quote from: mizkidmas

...but if you're a backyarder like me when do you say ok 2 hives are enough. or 3. or 4.?

Ah, there's the rub! One's too many and a dozen's not enough.

"My name is Kris, and I'm a beekeeper . . ."

thegolfpsycho · « **Reply #14 on:** May 06, 2006, 11:28:21 pm »

You can control the number of supers by pulling the super, extracting, and giving it back for them to fill again. Some of us are lazy so we just keep pileing on the boxes. If I had limited equipment, it's what I would do.

Michael Bush · « **Reply #15 on:** May 07, 2006, 06:51:15 pm »

>I'm just wondering how big the average bee hive is...and technically, according to Michael Bush, I could keep adding layers up to the heavens.

I've had them up where I couldn't reach the top box, but there is a limit. That limit depends on the fecundity of the queen, the cooperation of the weather, the timing of the rain and the sunshine, and the necatar flow that year.

>That's fine if you're a commercial beekeeper...but if you're a backyarder like me when do you say ok 2 hives are enough. or 3. or 4.?

I think four is a nice goal for a backyard beekeeper. It gives you some resources to work with to keep them all healty. I'd say two is a miniumn.

> do I keep buying new hives each year and expand or do I let them swarm as nature intended

Of figure out how to keep them from swarming and getting three times as much honey instead.

> or can I leave 2 deep and super on and just harvest.

Of course.

>I'm just speaking purely from 'what can I manage' stand point.

It's just a matter of how often you want to clean up after harvest. I'm lazy and I try to do it once a year.

Finsky · « **Reply #16 on:** May 08, 2006, 03:41:04 am »

Let it make brood freely and look how big hive you get. When you are beginner it is danderous to you to "orger" which is proper size.

Colony grows druring it's time and one day it begins to make surplus honey.

There are no normal size hive. Some are 2 box and some are 7-9 box.
If room is not enough it swarm away. So give to it room so much as it wants. Don't restrict it.