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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #12752  by Ewen
 30 May 2022, 18:58
Hello all.

At the beginning of May I received my 6 frame nucleus, with a big fat queen, never seen one so big before, mind you I only started last year beekeeping , but anyways it was doing so well. Couple of weeks after moved them to their hive I’ve added the super cause their were building like crazy.

I have checked them over the weekend and I was prepared to get some honey out of em, however they haven’t touched the super at all, there is quite a few frames with capped honey in there mixed with brood (brood box), all the frames from my brood box are full either with brood or honey.The queen seems rather slim now and just little new egg laying. It’s jut I thought that after so nice hot weather and the rapeseed’s been in bloom and like everywhere they will have produced loads of capped honey frames in my super.

I was gutted 😞 to be honest.I had such high hopes from that nucleus.

I have two more hives which I think they have both swarmed last month and basically they just started all over again.

I suppose there is no chance to get any honey from them lot this year. :roll:
 #12754  by JoJo36
 30 May 2022, 19:27
Hi Ewen
I think you need to be a bit more patient as the bees have gone from a nuc to a full hive and the queens do go 'off lay' for a few weeks during the 'June break' I have been told, but some years there apparently is no break??!! It sounds like some guesswork involved??!!
The hive sounds healthy with plenty of brood food etc., and don't forget you have a couple of months for the bees to collect honey so I think you are expecting too much too soon??!! The queen normally slims down before preparing to swarm but, it doesn't sound like that in your case?! Check for supercedure cells just in case she is on her way out??!!
Every beekeeping year is different and I have 'cocked up' so many times which is still ongoing but, you try a certain way and if it doesn't work try something else??!!
I really wouldn't be worried with your hive, it sounds good to me!! :)
 #12757  by AdamD
 31 May 2022, 14:20
A nuc this year would be doing well to get honey by the end of May. If the colony has expanded well and there's plenty of stores, there is a chance that you'll have some honey in a super by the end of July.
Sometimes it takes a while for bees to move up to foundation in a super and bees won't draw comb unless they need to. The excluder can act as a sort of barrier to them. You could remove the queen excluder until the bees start to draw comb in the super, and then put it back on with the queen below it of course.
Another option is to put a super frame in the brood box until it starts to get drawn, then put it back in the super. Once there's some foundation started in the super, bees will more likely go there.
It's also the case that some colonies love putting honey above their heads; others are not so bothered and wait until the brood box is rammed before they move honey up.
 #12764  by NigelP
 01 Jun 2022, 08:38
Ewan, sounds like they are clogging the brood nest. Might be a good idea to remove honey bound brood frames and replace with undrawn to give her some room. Either extract the brood frames or save and give back for the winter (saves a bit of feeding). I often have to remove honey clogged brood frames at this time of year. Extracted about 20 yesterday.
As Adam says they often won't touch the foundation in the super un til they need to, usually whilst there is a flow on. Currently my girls are ignoring new foundation in supers as we are into an early June gap here.
 #12778  by MickBBKA
 04 Jun 2022, 01:44
Alfred wrote:
31 May 2022, 15:35
Patience young Jedi.
Spot on. Alfred. The bees will move the honey into the super when they need to. We are heading into a dearth of forage and they can be treading water now for a month. Expecting a honey crop so soon is bonkers. Removing frames is also pointless IMHO as they haven't used the space in the super anyway. Why remove 'clogged frames' when the bees haven't un clogged them ? They may also be starving in the so called June gap and will need those stores. The only way they will move up into the super is when the queen has run out of space and they need to remove stores to make space for brood. Think of the brood nest shape. I often have to give the bees 2 brood boxes and a 1/2 brood super for brood and stores to allow the space for a brood nest oval. I really should have gone commercial hives. There is also the local area conditions that if you have local bees you need to consider. My local bees go crazy for pollen any chance they get as foraging is so unpredictable and I can have full frames of pollen in a brood box if they get a chance of it Like this year. But June is a dreadful month and they will eat it all, removing it is a bad thing here. I do think if you are talking about a single brood box you shouldn't be removing anything. But ask 2 beekeepers ???????? ;)
 #12820  by AdamD
 10 Jun 2022, 10:09
"Think of the brood nest shape. I often have to give the bees 2 brood boxes and a 1/2 brood super for brood and stores to allow the space for a brood nest oval".

I was extracting honey yesterday. A pair of supers were from a single brood-box colony (the rest are double brood). It was noticeable that the lower super- i.e. the one directly over the brood box was empty of honey in an arc that went nearly up to the top bar. This was the brood nest shape that Mick mentions and demonstrates how many eggs the queen could have laid if she had been given room. As it is, the colony has sat there with 9 frames of brood for the past 6 weeks and I had been humming and harring over whether to increase the brood-nest size and didn't get around to it. As the other colonies have produced, as a guess, 50% more honey than this one it demonstrates how much difference restricting the laying space makes. And the double brood-box colonies have more stores in them to survive the current June Gap.