Gday all. Just a quick noob question. We live in the Adelaide Hills and my hive is doing really well, good strong brood patterns and lots of them. All other frames are full of honey. As we still have a good month of cooler weather ahead, should I wait a little longer until I put my super on, so they don’t get cold or, should I put it on now to give the ladies a bit more room?
Cheers
If they are out of space and there is a nectar flow you should put the super on. Looking at your weather forecast it looks like good spring foraging weather from my perspective.
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Thank you for the reply! Yes, there is a lot of flowering plants at the moment waking from their winter slumber, so I might just do it then. They are really really busy at the moment
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Hi Axematt, a lot of swarms are happening. Yesterday we heard of one in Victoria. That’s just something to be aware of.
Ok, another thing to learn about…swarms, why is that something to be aware of? Sorry, still learning.
If your brood box is full it would be worth expanding your brood nest. A crowded brood is one of the primary triggers for swarming.
Rob.
“aware of” might be the wrong term. “mindful of” could be a better term to use. Swarming, another thing to learn about will certainly be helpful.
A lady with a Flow hive phoned me while her colony was swarming today. I wasn’t able to help her, or even take the swarm away, on account that I’m short on time & boxes while managing my own bees.
Since talking to the lady, I got to thinking of all the helpful videos that the Flow team have available for new beekeepers to learn from. They have a lot on the topic of swarming & swarm prevention. Plus there is a lot of info within this forum on that topic.
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Thank you all for the advice and tips! It’s really helpful having these types of forums for people like me and not being made to feel too stupid. I did end up putting my super on today and was great to see the ladies up there exploring. Fingers crossed they start storing up there.
One last thing, I did a hive inspect about 2 weeks ago and I couldn’t see any prep for a swarm but when I did eventually put the super on today, my mind is going back over the last two weeks and I think I may have missed the other outer signs (as well as maybe missing the internal signs perhaps). They’re does seem to be a lot of activity just outside the entrance and I just thought it was due to the flowering season starting but reading other posts, this could indeed be swarm prep. Will taking out a frame or two of honey in the brood box help with this, or if the preparations are underway, is it too late perhaps.
Opening up the brood nest with some empty frames would help if they are not already preparing to swarm. Just adding space if they already have swarm cells probably won’t prevent the swarm.
You could open up again and do a more thorough inspection but if there are already advance swarm preparations then splitting is your best option.
Thanks for that. Gee, I’m a little under prepared and trained for this. Don’t even have a second brood box to do a split! I’ll do another inspection tomorrow for more signs and quickly find a brood box and try and do a split if needed. lucky for Youtube hey!
Just a quick update for anyone who cares, did a thorough inspection today and found no queen cells anywhere and nothing pointing to swarm activity, other than being very busy outside. So With my limited knowledge, I think all is well and am leaving as is. When I cast my mind back, I remember the bees bring this busy out the front of the hive for about 4/5 weeks now. Not festooning at all just really busy! Thanks for all the info guys!
Hi Axematt, getting back to your original question in the title of the thread. I believe it’s time to add the honey super, however in doing so, it would be recommended to open up the brood by placing some of the brood frames in the middle of the honey super, then replace them with fresh empty frames of drawn comb, foundation or empty, in a checkerboard fashion.
This is why I said to be mindful of swarming at this point in time.