When to add super?

[Dee]

@Gerald_Nickel

Blanc. Always let your bees build up before adding the top Flow-Super/Honey super. The standard is that you are ready when the bees have drawn out 6 to 7 frames in an 8 frame configuration. Make sure you have nearly 3 to 4 frames of brood in the frames n some honey/nectar n pollen around the edges of these brood frame. You need a strong well populated colony of worker with eggs, larva n emerging worker to forage before they can give you honey. Up where I live in the Pacific NW of Washington state we try to get two brood boxes but up first or the bees won’t have enough supplies to winter our cool wet winters. Be patient. Each region had different requirements. It usually our second yeR up here we can harvest …

This is an excellent reply.

I might just disagree with

@Gerald_Nickel

Make sure you have nearly 3 to 4 frames of brood

I might wait till all the frames are drawn and 5 frames are solidly covered in brood.
Running two boxes is sensible if you are going to let the bees overwinter on their own honey. On just the one box, once you have taken the flow frames off for the winter where are the bees going to keep their stores?..unless, of course, you are going to rob every skerret and feed them sugar syrup.
Here in the UK I wouldn’t expect any honey from a nucleus colony in its first year.