Post by rjoki on Aug 12, 2011 9:12:02 GMT -7
3 Hives of double deeps.
1 hive has 2 supers remaining
2 hives have 1 super remaining
no queen excluder at all this year on any hive
I have removed all of the supers and frames that were only partially drawn and reduced the supers down to only frames that have honey stores in them.
Most of the frames are partially capped, and about 1/3 of the remaining frames are 80% capped or more. I'm letting them work on finishing up a super for each hive, and they have been flying hard and fast the last week or so.
There is tons of brood in the top brood box in frames 4,5, and 6, with a small band of honey forming across the top (an inch or so). Frames 2,3,8,9 are mostly full of honey in the top brood box with 1 and 10 still pretty empty on the outsides. I haven't broken down the hives far enough to tell what's going on in the bottom brood box, and decided to wait till I think the honey flow is over to disturb the hives that far - and to just let them work for now.
I've pulled two of three fully capped frames into the house from each hive, and have them safely stored. I won't extract any of them until I get a chance to fully weigh and asses the actual honey stores that are in the deeps. I also will pull the rest of the remaining frames from the supers over the next week or so if they are 90% capped. I'm expecting that by next week the remaining supers will be pretty full as they were filling nicely when I got in last week.
I'm planning to start top feeding the second that I pull the remaining supers - at least by Sept. 1st. I also will immediately begin the process of treatment for mites etc. at that time. I'll continue the top feeding until it gets cold and wet this fall. I do believe that keeping extra humidity in the hive by feeding too far into the fall can cause unplanned problems over the winter.
I think I will be lucky to have a total of 15 frames to extract out of my three hives this year - about the same as I got out of my single hive last year. I'm not feeling bad about it though, as two of the hives are new from nuc's this year, and they have grown into great hives for the future.
All that said -- where are the rest of your at ?? Have you pulled all your supers ? Are you treating your bees now ? What was your harvest like ? Are some of you waiting a bit longer like me this year ?
YOUR information will help the rest of us better understand our own situations -- so thanks for contributing to the discussion !!
1 hive has 2 supers remaining
2 hives have 1 super remaining
no queen excluder at all this year on any hive
I have removed all of the supers and frames that were only partially drawn and reduced the supers down to only frames that have honey stores in them.
Most of the frames are partially capped, and about 1/3 of the remaining frames are 80% capped or more. I'm letting them work on finishing up a super for each hive, and they have been flying hard and fast the last week or so.
There is tons of brood in the top brood box in frames 4,5, and 6, with a small band of honey forming across the top (an inch or so). Frames 2,3,8,9 are mostly full of honey in the top brood box with 1 and 10 still pretty empty on the outsides. I haven't broken down the hives far enough to tell what's going on in the bottom brood box, and decided to wait till I think the honey flow is over to disturb the hives that far - and to just let them work for now.
I've pulled two of three fully capped frames into the house from each hive, and have them safely stored. I won't extract any of them until I get a chance to fully weigh and asses the actual honey stores that are in the deeps. I also will pull the rest of the remaining frames from the supers over the next week or so if they are 90% capped. I'm expecting that by next week the remaining supers will be pretty full as they were filling nicely when I got in last week.
I'm planning to start top feeding the second that I pull the remaining supers - at least by Sept. 1st. I also will immediately begin the process of treatment for mites etc. at that time. I'll continue the top feeding until it gets cold and wet this fall. I do believe that keeping extra humidity in the hive by feeding too far into the fall can cause unplanned problems over the winter.
I think I will be lucky to have a total of 15 frames to extract out of my three hives this year - about the same as I got out of my single hive last year. I'm not feeling bad about it though, as two of the hives are new from nuc's this year, and they have grown into great hives for the future.
All that said -- where are the rest of your at ?? Have you pulled all your supers ? Are you treating your bees now ? What was your harvest like ? Are some of you waiting a bit longer like me this year ?
YOUR information will help the rest of us better understand our own situations -- so thanks for contributing to the discussion !!