Adding supers before a nectar flow
Our
beekeeping mentor (aka our movie star neighbor) called to remind me
that the first major nectar
flow of the year is
about to begin. "The Black Locusts and Tulip-trees are starting
to bloom," he warned. "Be sure to put an extra super on your
hives!"
So I suited up and
headed out to check on our honeybees. Although the nectar trees
are blooming at our mentor's nearby house, our shady farm is a bit
behind and the bees were miffed at my intrusion into their lives.
Nevertheless, I was able to see that all three hive bodies were full of
brood and pollen, and that one of the hives had filled the first super
and started on the second. I popped a third super on our
strongest hive, remembering with a smile how one beekeeper I met told
me that he likes to add plenty of supers to a hive. "It can't
hurt," he said, "And everyone passing by will think you must be an
amazing beekeeper to need room for so much honey!"
At the other extreme,
one of our hives was down to its last small frame of honey. The
queen in this hive started laying about a week later this spring than
the queens did in the other two hives, and I suspect it's just taken
the late queen longer to raise enough workers to sock away honey rather
than consuming it. I'll check on them again next week and give
them a bit of spare honey if necessary.
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.
I have to say, I'm pretty jealous of your bee hives. I've been trying to convice Ben to let me get bees, but he's convinced that I'll get hurt and the neighbors will want to run us out of here. Oh well, maybe someday!
For now I'll just be happy to read about yours. I don't know much about it, but it sounds like they're off to a good start!