Super too soon this year

Beekeeping - Basics
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First inspection yesterday. We’ve had a mild Winter - a frost on a few mornings, but rarely below freezing. One of my hives has 3 frames with 1/4 of the frame with brood in a sporadic pattern. The other hive has 4 frames with 1/2 of the frame with brood, in a perfect pattern, and in comparison with the other hive, absolutely packed with bees. We are not ‘out of the woods’ yet for a hard frost, so is it too soon to put a Super on the second hive ? Last year I waited patiently for a Queen to ‘get going’, but in the end she had to go, so the new Queen was introduced fairly late in the season, with consequential impact on honey production. Is it too early to condemn the Queen laying a sporadic pattern ?

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I use 3 cardinal rules for adding any empty box, be it a super or a brood box. All of the following must be true:

  1. Every frame has fully drawn comb, and
  2. The comb is 80% full of brood or food (honey/pollen), and
  3. Every frame is completely covered with bees

If all of those are true, they need more space. If any one of them is not true, you should probably wait.

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Based on your last season, you probably already know the answers to your questions.

I think I would wait a little bit longer to put the super on. I’d probably wait a little bit longer to see if that queen comes good, however if a new queen is readily available, it might be a good idea to re-queen sooner rather than later.

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Isn’t it funny that the three of you have the same photo concept. I thought your photo, @adrian, looked familiar then quickly realised it was Dawn’s that it reminded me of :smile: and then Jeff came along!

I agree with Dawn and Jeff’s comments but would also like to add that some beekeepers start to feed their bees in the lead up to spring to get them ahead in terms of population and ready for the surge in forage on the horizon. If your intention is for max honey production, then perhaps this is something to consider to boost your colony and make conditions more suitable for adding the super.

Otherwise, if you prefer not to feed your bees sugar syrup and let them be, then I recommend following Dawn and Jeff’s advice.

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Just read the weather prediction for the next 4 weeks in the UK on sky news Adrian.

I’d wait as its not looking great for bees getting out.

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Excellent rules. Thank you.

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