# Too Many Supers, Working Too Fast!



## Rex Piscator (Oct 12, 2010)

I could not have imagined how well these first year colonies have done. Using 8-frame equipment, I knew my hives might get a tad on the 'tall' side; but not this tall.

During my latest inspection when I had to add a box to each hive, I had forgotten I'd left the first frame out of the top box...and didn't notice until I'd managed to huff the top box back onto the hive!!










Here's a snapshot of me mildly panicking as I notice the 'lost' frame leaning against the hive.

And here I am gently sliding it back into place...not how I wanted to do it; I could hardly see if I was rolling any bees.











Everything seemed to go back together nicely and the two colonies quieted down by evening.


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## tsmullins (Feb 17, 2011)

That's crazy! Good job.


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## GuntherVKW (Jun 6, 2011)

Great work!!!! I bet you are thrilled.

I see you are using all mediums....I have two deeps full of brood, two mediums of capped honey, and a third medium of honey on its way....all ten frame equipment, first year hive, all from undrawn plastic foundation....

This is my first year at bee keeping....I started my one and only hive from a 3# package of Carniolans in late April....and my Girls still have two or three months to produce....looks like it might be a good year for both of us....just thought I'd say hello from Ohio....


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## Fuzzy (Aug 4, 2005)

Obviously, you did not read the section that said to first dig a pit that was 3 ft deep to begin you hive. If you had, you would not have this problem.

Seriously, it is not uncommon around here, with a good hive, to get 4 or 5 supers of honey. Perhaps even more sometimes.

Fuzzy


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Next year, remove the stand. I have several hives at ladder stage also.


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## Fuzzy (Aug 4, 2005)

If it's too much trouble for you, just let me know. I'll be more than happy to add and remove supers for you as long as I can keep what is inside of them 

Fuzzy


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Fuzzy said:


> If it's too much trouble for you, just let me know. I'll be more than happy to add and remove supers for you as long as I can keep what is inside of them Fuzzy


I would make the same offer if I had one empty box left.


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## Rex Piscator (Oct 12, 2010)

I got 3 boxes left; probably should order another batch....and more frames as well!

I think I got it covered mates, ...the wifie just reminded me we have a short 3 step around[but doesn't want it covered in honey and smashed bees]. Now, what I need now is a line on some way of extraction...

I need the legs of stands for pest management; ANTS! I had to wrap each leg with 2" gaffers tape and smear some tanglefoot on it to keep them at bay. They had totally over run my hive top feeder, so bad the bees vacated it[and their feed syrup for comb]. Before I started, I 'kinda' knew I'd be battling ants with all the sugar around, at least they focus their attention out there and not on our kitchen! I feel for the poor dying bees that get cast off into "Ant Apocalypse", where they're immediately surrounded and dispatched quickly. Seemed once I thwarted their entry into the hive, they seem bent on revenge.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

It is unlikely that you need to feed bees in El Sobrante except for a few weeks when they are starts. Lose the stand, lose the entrance block, lose the sugar and you will lose the ants.


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

Those little black Argentine ants can be boogers. They colonize underneath some kind of protection like cement or flagstones or like that.


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## oldreliable (Jan 29, 2011)

You could have robbing from the smaller hive going on too.. sometimes you will have one hive stacking on supers while the others not so much..good indicator you have a hive of robbers..if so split them up or destroy...once a lazy bee always a lazy bee I say :applause:


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## Kazzandra (Jul 7, 2010)

I'm impressed with your amount of honey, but I'm more impressed you have them on what appears to be a back porch! You sure they're not getting into the kitchen and into your sugar supplies?


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## Me Beeing Me (May 27, 2011)

How the heck do you prepare a hive like that for the winter?? I see the queen excluder in the middle of the 6 deeps, will you tear off the top three and winter the bottom three?


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## Rex Piscator (Oct 12, 2010)

It's only 6 medium 8 frame supers...

I will probably leave one super on and harvest the top 2. Of course, I have this 'feeling', I'll still have to add another surplus super to each hive. The 'Yellow' hive swarmed 3 weeks ago[not the one I am pictured working] and I now have a third hive in my apiary. I followed the swarm to the fence line between 2 neighbors and got to enter the neighbor's yard, whom I know, and captured them! They clustered into a 3' x 1' x 4" thick mass which was hidden behind a rose bush, clinging to the fence. I removed some of the rose bush to expose the swarm and I gave the chain link fence a quick 'snap' and most of the mass fell right onto the landing board of a hive I quickly assembled. It was amazing to see how quickly they marched into the new hive....! I was lucky I had an extra screened bottom board and some supers or I would have lost them!


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Dude, where's your smoker?


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## Intheswamp (Jul 5, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> Dude, where's your smoker?


Look down in lower left corner in both pictures, Mark. Smoke in one, glimpse of the smoker in the other one. It seems pretty wild to me that the hives are so close to the back door...apparently the bees like being "close to home". 

Ed


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## bluegrass (Aug 30, 2006)

Nice looking hives. How much sugar have you been feeding? The easy solution to the tall hive is to extract some of the supers instead of adding more. If you fed syrup this season, discard the extracted honey. It will be adulterated with sugar.


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## kincade (Feb 3, 2011)

Nice looking woodenware! Did you have it dipped?


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## Rex Piscator (Oct 12, 2010)

Smoker is near the glass table, puffing away. 

That doorway is actually my workshop[part of the garage]; inside I've got my woodworking tools/tinker shop! As I work on my woodenware, I'm just a few steps away from the hives.

The wood is almost all Mann Lake 'select' supers. After seeing so many 'dipped' boxes[really like the color & texture], and not being able to reproduce the look, I choose to go with a clear oil-based finish, 5-6 coats. "Varathane: Spar Urethane" was the product I used. I can get almost a 5 medium box8-frame supers covered with about a quart.

Thanks for the interest, everyone! It's been a lot of fun and interesting 'work'.

I took the top feeders off BEFORE I added supers[above excluder], so the product should be 'clean'; I hope! I've been following this site for a bit now and have read some great management techniques. Thanks Barry, All!


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## bluegrass (Aug 30, 2006)

Rex Piscator said:


> I took the top feeders off BEFORE I added supers[above excluder], so the product should be 'clean'; I hope! I've been following this site for a bit now and have read some great management techniques. Thanks Barry, All!


What do you have on the bottom? Looks like a bottom feeder. The bees will move stores around the hive, so some adulteration occurs anyway.. If you stopped feeding before you supered that is a pretty nice crop you have there..


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## Rex Piscator (Oct 12, 2010)

That is my DIY screened bottom board with a sliding tray insert, in the rear. I made it extra deep under the screen to not allow any mites easy access back into the hive[when I do eventually find them]. The screen carries forward to provide the 'screened porch'/landing board which sticks out a tad. I also made the stands myself, with a dadoed 3/4" groove for the SSB. It all fits together nicely and looks nice, . The stand is designed as well as the SSB to have a clean fall with no ledges for bugs to grab onto. I've been trying to figure some kind of pollen trap 'add-on'.... I just finished my portable stand which was taken from a Thread here and that helps, that glass table became quite unstable with 2 full medium supers on it! LOL...that was okay for when the hives where just packages starting out. They're both way beyond that now, the yellow hive swarmed and I captured that a few weeks ago. I'm putting together a hive for my buddy and will truck it there in a week or so.


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## kincade (Feb 3, 2011)

Rex Piscator said:


> The wood is almost all Mann Lake 'select' supers. After seeing so many 'dipped' boxes[really like the color & texture], and not being able to reproduce the look, I choose to go with a clear oil-based finish, 5-6 coats. "Varathane: Spar Urethane" was the product I used. I can get almost a 5 medium box8-frame supers covered with about a quart.


Looks spectacular!


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## BeeGhost (May 7, 2011)

Very nice Rex!! Looks like a great harvest is in store for you this fall, or sooner!! Congrats, especially on your first year of bees!! Im still waiting on my first 10 frame medium super to get filled out, 5 frames are full as of today! I am running 2 deeps for the brood/food.

You better buy some scaffolding to keep up with the bees!!................Jason


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

Extract a box or two and put them back. Why add more.?


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## Sherillynn (Apr 17, 2011)

You have a really nice setup and some nice hives. Great work!


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Looks good.
Don't think you'll need to leave the 4th med on for winter. You're bees should be putting honey in the 3rd for winter.
You could always extract the 4th one in the spring if they didn't need it. Remember to remove the excluder if you leave it for winter.


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## Rex Piscator (Oct 12, 2010)

Yes, the plan is to remove the excluder come winter. The 3rd box is already pretty full of surplus for the colony. I also include in each hive, 2 'foundationless' frames I assembled myself. The comb I've seen built in these frames is drone and they must like this arrangement[lots of honey storage as well]; as my drones are all seem to be huge and I have a good percentage of them as a whole of the population.

I hadn't planned on extracting this year, which is why I'm behind the 8-ball on space and the mechanics of extraction. I have no way to extract right now, aside from finding someone fairly local to the San Francisco bay area and negotiating some exchange. Plus, I've never done this before[pull supers/frames for extraction] and am just now looking at methods of clearing the supers....


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## bluegrass (Aug 30, 2006)

What do you have for foundation? If your on plastic you can easily scrape the comb out of them and strain the honey out, then throw them back on the hive to be redrawn. 

Wax foundation you could uncap and let gravity do the work for you, just hang the frames in a plastic tub with a lid for a few days and then put them back on the hive for clean up. With this method you may need to develop a warming box to help the gravity pull the honey out of the frame.


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