When to take off supers...

[Bananas]

Hi all

I know there is 10 different answers from 10 different bee keepers but just looking for some thoughts on my super removal plan.

I have a fair amount of capped super frames and uncapped. My plan is to remove the capped frames this week and store them somewhere very safe away from the many insects that would want to have it.

Id then come back a week or so later and remove what of the uncapped honey they have then capped. I have an extractor booked for hire in a few weeks.

Thats the plan. The other option is to take it all away in a few weeks in one go and hope its all capped. Any thoughts??

[Chrisbarlow]

I would leave all supers on till you've got the extractor coming the following couple of days.

Then take off everything that's ready.

[Chrisbarlow]

Any that's not capped. I'd leave on.

If you want more to be capped make sure there are no empty supers on and they're more likely to cap more cells but you risk compression swarming.

[NigelP]

Buy yourself a refractometer. I've had loads of uncapped honey this year coming out at 18% water, which is fine.
Being capped is no guarantee of being legal. A couple of years ago I some capped spring honey reading 23% water...I kid you not. This year I had uncapped spring honey reading 16%.....

[AndrewLD]

Two aspects to this you may have overlooked:
1. Wax moth don't just lay eggs in brood boxes and its the bees that keep this under control. Stored supers can harbour wax moth that then emerge and have a great time so you suddenly find half your crop is ruined - been there
2. Varroa level - unless you have a very low level indeed, most beekeepers are treating in the second half of August so the winter brood is as strong as possible........

[nealh]

If you had your own extractor you can crop as and when it is ready other wise wait until you get the loan one and remove the day before having put the clearers on a day or so before that.

[AndrewLD]

Two aspects to this you may have overlooked:
1. Wax moth don't just lay eggs in brood boxes and its the bees that keep this under control. Stored supers can harbour wax moth that then emerge and have a great time so you suddenly find half your crop is ruined - been there
2. Varroa level - unless you have a very low level indeed, most beekeepers are treating in the second half of August so the winter brood is as strong as possible........

Regarding 2. I should have said - so if you are treating for varroa you need to take off the honey supers before doing so.
The flow is over down here and the bees are busy drying the honey and finishing off the frames - I am tempted to say just leave them to it. The honey I am taking off comes off end of next week, unfinished frames will go into the super I leave on.
Nigel's recommendation to get a refractometer is a good idea - it can tell you not just that the honey is too high in water content to extract but also that a frame you might think is not extractable actually has a low content........

[AdamD]

Bees look after honey very well, so I would be inclined to leave the supers on until needed. I currently have part-filled supers which need to come off - I am taking the lower-most ones off from time to time; so far the honey is less than 20% water content. When extracted supers go back on for final clearing and drying, some colonies are doing as they have been told and are drying out these supers well. Others are not. A refractometer is well-worth getting.
I would not be worried about compressing the bees down at this time of year; the chances of swarming are slight. However if there are a bunch of not-worth-extracting super frames that can stay in one super over the brood box, that would give them additional space if the colony were large.

[thewoodgatherer]

Buy yourself a refractometer. I've had loads of uncapped honey this year coming out at 18% water, which is fine.
Being capped is no guarantee of being legal. A couple of years ago I some capped spring honey reading 23% water...I kid you not. This year I had uncapped spring honey reading 16%.....

Make sure it’s calibrated, was panicking during the spring harvest as some was reading 19.5. I had calibrated the day before but using veg oil and not sunflower . Long and short correct calibration and the highest moisture was 18%

[Patrick]

Hi Bananas

As we are still below the 10 beekeeper threshold, I am going to ruin the truism and agree with previous responses. I would not remove capped supers early and store separately, as others said, because stored full supers attract unwelcome surprises like a factory friday TR7.

When I started I thought nectar (and thus honey) flows were pretty continuous from March to end September but the reality is for most of us that the big flows which allow the bees to store a meaningful surplus over their daily use, relies on a surprisingly few plants, crops or trees flowering period. They then need to be in flower at the same time as good weather to allow the bees to make use of them. Around here, once the bramble has gone over - largely that's it. So leaving part uncapped supers on much longer may not usefully change things. I initially left it on to the end of September as my old books suggested - not only is that not practical if you want to summer treat for varroa but the bees simply turned it into more bees.