# Bees won't touch top honey super. WHY?



## Aframe88 (Jul 4, 2013)

I have had a rough start to this hobby. Last year( early spring) was my 1st, and a few weeks after acquiring a healthy hive a bear tore through it causing them to swarm. Then in late summer of 2012 a spontaneous swarm took shelter in my hive and actually made it through the winter. They are very aggressive bees. I can't even get close to the hive w/o them attacking. Besides that my issue is:

The hive has been productive. The queen is laying eggs, mostly worker bees, They've made honey on most of the frames in the top of the hive body, but since I've put a medium super on top of that, THEY WON'T TOUCH IT. I've just left it for them to work on, but it's now been a couple months and still all the bee's have done is added some propolis to the edges of the foundation. 

Any information on what I've got going on would be a great help, as I am sort of a rogue beekeeper and don't have any body to share and work with.

Thanks
-Adam


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Aframe88 said:


> The hive has been productive. The queen is laying eggs, mostly worker bees, They've made honey on most of the frames in the top of the hive body, but since I've put a medium super on top of that, THEY WON'T TOUCH IT.
> Thanks
> -Adam



1. Honey flow over with?
2. Your not using excluders are you?


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## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

Seasons almost over, no need for them to use that super unless they are bringing loads of nectar. The majority of wax is drawn in spring during the main flow, after that the small trickle of nectar is usually not enough stimulate wax production, especially if they have open cells to use. 

My hives have not drawn new comb since middle of June.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Aframe88 said:


> I have had a rough start to this hobby. Last year( early spring) was my 1st, and a few weeks after acquiring a healthy hive a bear tore through it causing them to swarm. Then in late summer of 2012 a spontaneous swarm took shelter in my hive and actually made it through the winter. They are very aggressive bees. I can't even get close to the hive w/o them attacking. Besides that my issue is:
> 
> The hive has been productive. The queen is laying eggs, mostly worker bees, They've made honey on most of the frames in the top of the hive body, but since I've put a medium super on top of that, THEY WON'T TOUCH IT. I've just left it for them to work on, but it's now been a couple months and still all the bee's have done is added some propolis to the edges of the foundation.
> 
> ...


Are you asking a question aboutg a Langstroth type hive in the Top Bar Hive Forum? Or are you talking about a super on a top bar hive?

If they aren't touching it they don't need it yet. Maybe you need a nectar flow.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

Bees only use equipment, like honey supers, when they need the space, for excess population or surplus nectar/pollen. And, they can't really utilize extra space, that is without usable comb, unless there are plenty of very young bees and an excess of nectar being brought in by older, field bees. With a sufficient population of young bees and excess nectar, they can produce wax and build comb.

I too am curious as to how your top bar hive is arranged to accommodate supers.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Consider the annual life cycle of a colony of bees. I'm sure Michael Bush could explain this better than I. But the time of year when comb is best built is when the colony is in an expansion mode, growing in population and in need of more room and space to store honey and cells for brood to be laid in.

This time of year is when the colony is starting to contract, honey and pollen being packed into brood nest cells and such. So I wouldn't expect much comb to be built this time of year. 

Though you might be able to force them to do it if you fed syrup and applied a protein patty.


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## Aframe88 (Jul 4, 2013)

Oh. Didn't relize this was a TBH forum. My bad.


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## Aframe88 (Jul 4, 2013)

Smart ass. My hive is full to the brim w brood and honey in the hive body, but the super on top remains untouched except for a little propolis around the edges.


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## praxis178 (Dec 26, 2012)

Joseph Clemens said:


> I too am curious as to how your top bar hive is arranged to accommodate supers.


Joseph this is how I did it, I had to split a colony and didn't have anything bigger to put it into so I used my capture hive and then they near out grew that and it was figure out something or watch them swarm. In hind sight building a bigger TBH would have been easier, but this has been fun too....

Like this: http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o720/Thomas_J_Janstrom/IMG_06211_zpsd7884bd0.jpg 
Access to the super: http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o720/Thomas_J_Janstrom/IMG_06201_zpsefd55883.jpg 
The super: http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o720/Thomas_J_Janstrom/IMG_06171_zps6f4f8432.jpg

Took a fair bit of thinking to work out and I'm still tinkering with this. The spring flow here in Australia is getting well under way right now so I'm perfecting this and on the lookout for swarm signs which can't be far off now......

Cheers, Thomas.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Aframe88 said:


> Smart ass. My hive is full to the brim w brood and honey in the hive body, but the super on top remains untouched except for a little propolis around the edges.


So, this is a TBH you have? If your bars are tight like I undertstand they are supposed to be, how do your bees get up into ther super?

"Smart ass"? Go easy on such language so early in your time w/ us, okay? I didn't know if you were asking a TBH question or a Langstroth/TBH hybrid question.


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## praxis178 (Dec 26, 2012)

I gradually replaced them with the access bars (see the second link) so there is a 3/8" gap effectively between each bar and it's center ward neighbor. They are arranged like this [[[[[|]]]]] with a normal 1 1/4" at the center/midlength of the hive.

Thomas.


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

praxis178 said:


> I gradually replaced them with the access bars (see the second link) so there is a 3/8" gap effectively between each bar and it's center ward neighbor. They are arranged like this [[[[[|]]]]] with a normal 1 1/4" at the center/midlength of the hive.
> 
> Thomas.


Thomas, I had been wondering how your hybrid hive was working out. I have questions on it but don't want to divert this thread from the OP's question so I will hold off.


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## praxis178 (Dec 26, 2012)

I'll start separate thread to discuss my hybrid hive and its progress....

Thomas.


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