Wet supers

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Billir
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Joined: February 25th, 2016, 8:16 pm

Wet supers

Unread post by Billir »

Putting wet supers on the hives after extracting.
Factoids
There is still nectar coming in .
There are still many honey supers on the the colonies.
I have started to extract - having to cherry pick the ripe frames. Customers Waiting!! Some Canola around.
When I put the wets on they do not pull it down but just consolidate the honey even to extent they will cap it into very shallow cells.
Even tried to do the no no of stacking them a distance away and they barely touch them in 3 days.

Question
Should I wait until the flow is over?
Is there a better placement on the stack rather than on top?

Other ideas.
Allen Dick
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Re: Wet supers

Unread post by Allen Dick »

That will depend on your location, and I don't see it in your post or your profile.
Allen Dick, RR#1 Swalwell, Alberta, Canada T0M 1Y0
51° 33'39.64"N 113°18'52.45"W
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/Allen%27s%20Beehives.kmz
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Countryboy
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Re: Wet supers

Unread post by Countryboy »

What are you trying to accomplish? Where are you at in your season? Do you plan on extracting more honey this season, or are you wanting to prepare the hives for winter now?

Here in central Ohio, we are currently in a nectar dearth. I am extracting now. After I extract, if the wet supers are outside for more than 3 minutes, the bees are all over them trying to clean them up.

As I pull honey from hives, I put on the wet/cleaned supers on hives. Even though we are in a nectar dearth now, I am putting 3 shallow supers on hives because we usually get a good goldenrod/aster flow in September. I've seen hives put about 100 pounds a hive in supers in the first 2 weeks of September before.

I helped a commercial beekeeper in 2010. Early in the season, he may have had a half dozen medium or shallow supers in hives. Right now as he pulls supers from hives, he will leave 2 medium supers on hives, then an inner cover, and then surplus wet supers above the inner cover and then a telescoping cover.

The reason he puts 2 supers on, and I put 3 supers on right now, is because he prefers to have 2 supers that are nearly full, rather than having to extract 3 boxes to get the same amount of honey. If the bees do get a good fall flow they will plug out the 2 supers before they start storing honey above the inner cover. When he does his final pull of honey, empty supers are stacked up in the beeyard for storage during the winter. He puts down a bottom board, metal queen excluder, a stack of empty supers with a telescoping lid on top. That late int he season, frost kills the wax moths before they cause a problem, and the metal excluder at the bottom prevents mice from getting into the stack. (usually)

There is nothing wrong with storing wet supers over the winter. Bees will quickly move into sticky supers when you put them back on next spring.
B. Farmer Honey
Central Ohio
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Billir
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Re: Wet supers

Unread post by Billir »

Thanks for you comments.
I am still in the summer flow - it starts later here and my bees are at a pretty high altitude in the foothills of the Rockies. I have 2 to 4 mediums on most of the colonies now and trying hard to get the capped honey off before the Canola honey granulates. Extracting in the garage so space is limited. This means I need to get the boxes dried out as I extract, and get them into a storage bin.
I did try putting the wets above the crown board but they did not move it down.
I guess I am just going to have to be patient and wait 'til the flow is done and give them the wets then.
Allen Dick
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Re: Wet supers

Unread post by Allen Dick »

Without a better idea of your latitude, we cannot give you specific advice. There is a huge difference between the climate and seasons between Alberta and New Mexico, and thus the timing of each seasonal operation.
The Rocky Mountains stretch some 3,000 miles from British Columbia and Alberta in Canada through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and down to New Mexico in the U.S. (Wikipedia)
Members are encouraged to indicate their approximate location(s) and where appropriate, altitude when asking for recommendations. Otherwise the advice offered will be imprecise or even inappropriate for the situation.

What may seem like a simple question has many aspects and the answers depend on your location, mite management, wintering intentions, etc..

The more information you give us, the better we can visualize. I can tell you that if you are in the Alberta foothills, your honey season is very probably ended or has a high likelihood of soon ending due to frost. If you are in New Mexico, I can't say.

Also, if you consult the climate and frost-free days data for your region, and dates of early frost, you will know better what to do.
Allen Dick, RR#1 Swalwell, Alberta, Canada T0M 1Y0
51° 33'39.64"N 113°18'52.45"W
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/Allen%27s%20Beehives.kmz
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Biermann
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Re: Wet supers

Unread post by Biermann »

Allen is right,

more info makes for more accuracy.

My situation is only 3-500 km (estimated) away from you, but with my last 'bee forage crop' being seeded later this week, my bees will still harvest in October unless we have lots of frost.

I install all wets back on to hives and don't really look at them until the next extraction, now every three weeks.

The 2/3 or more capped frame go in for extraction, the lesser stay on the hive.

All probably wrong, but works for me.

Give us your location, I promise we want visit, unless you have lots of beer & whisky.

Cheers, Joerg
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