When do you add a honey super? (2024)

FAQs

How do I know when to add a honey super? ›

Signs It's Time to Add a Super

When you notice that most of these frames are occupied, it's a sign that the bees require more room for honey storage. Congested Hive: If you find the hive's frames are tightly packed with bees, they may need more space.

Begin adding honey supers when a beehive's upper box is about 75% full of drawn comb with brood or food. If it is early in the season, bees can use the new box for brood. If honeyflow has begun (or is imminent), using a queen excluder keeps brood out of the added honey super, reserving it for ripening nectar.

You can add as many supers on your hives as the bees can fill. It's important that honey supers are added when the nectar flow is heavy to give the bees room to store honey and to prevent overcrowding inside the hive.

Add new honey supers when the hive body is full of bees. Remove all medications from the hive towards the end of the month (before the heavy honey flow), unless they are essential, i.e. the bees would not survive without it.

But be aware, it's not a case of just adding supers very early in the year, before the spring flows. If you add them too early it will set them back due to increased heating requirements in the hive. Add them too late and they will swarm due to restricted space in the hive.

Many beekeepers think that simply adding a super will keep their honey bees from swarming in the spring, but this is not always the case. While adding a super does provide additional space for honey storage and aids in reducing hive congestion, it has a negligible effect on preventing reproductive swarming.

When the bee colony reaches a point when a 10 frame hive reaches 8 frames full of bees, that is when you will add another super. Use the 80% rule in adding each super. After the second super is full drawn out of comb, that is when you can end supplemental sugar water feeding.

Once every frame is capped on each side you'll know that the honey super is ready to pull. Some beekeepers will even take a frame if it's around 2/3rds of the way capped. The logic here is that the nectar is likely dried to the right moisture content, the bees just haven't capped it yet.

Here are the most common reasons your bees aren't filling your supers with honey. The hive isn't strong enough. This is, by far, the most common reason. If your top brood box isn't 80% full of bees and pretty full of brood and honey, they aren't going to put much in your super.

Use the 7/10 rule, meaning the bees should have used seven out of the ten frames in the current boxes before adding an additional super. Add one super at a time for best results. It's better to add supers a little early than it is late. The 7/10 rule applies to adding extra boxes for honey.

Should I remove my honey supers for winter? ›

Don't take all your bees' honey. After all, they collected it for a reason—they need plenty of food to survive the coming winter. As mentioned above, I leave any fall honey (mostly aster and goldenrod) for my bees, and only do a single extraction of spring/summer honey each year.

It is important to install your bees in the brood box and wait until they are fully established before adding the Flow Super. This often takes 1 to 8 weeks, but can be longer if conditions are not favourable.

In terms of the best timing for when to add honey supers, a good rule of thumb is to super your hive when eight of the ten frames in the top brood chamber box are being used for brood and for nectar/honey/pollen storage.

I am frequently asked if the second honey super should be placed on top of the existing super or below it. Either way works. However, I prefer to place additional supers on top of existing supers. The filled super above the two deep brood nest area acts as a queen excluder.

Inspect every two to three weeks, looking for:

Stored honey – if frames are filling fast, you may need to add another super or harvest the excess. Overheating – if wax inside the hive is melting or softening, you may need to move your hives into the shade.

It takes roughly 7-14 for a strong colony to fill a shallow super. This timeframe will reduce if honey bees have a plentiful supply of nectar and pollen nearby. A super that has no beeswax comb may require one week to draw comb and the second week to fill it.