The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Bees & Beekeeping => Topic started by: Cjnewton82 on July 24, 2014, 03:53:09 pm
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Ok only stared with bees this year so bee nice!!
I was given what I think is a prime swam by a friend brood box I'd full to the brood and caped honey so I placed a supper and queen excluder but 4weeks on my bees are not going up to the super at all any ideas to encourage the bees into the supper?
Thank u
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If you are ok finding the queen then take the queen excluder off for a few days. That will allow the bees to get started on the foundation in the super. Then go back in make sure the queen is in the brood box add the excluded and put the super back on.
If you can't find the queen then you can spray the foundation with sugar syrup to encourage them up.
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I started last year. I decided I'd rather they were strong going into winter than try and pull honey off too soon. So I put them onto double brood box first which made it easier because it was fine that the queen went up too. Once both brood boxes were full, I put on a super but neither hive bothered going up much - a bit of drawn comb but that was it. I didn't want brood in the supers - I prefer the double brood to brood and a half for that reason. Anyhow, it seemed to work - I got 90lb of honey of one hive this year with them all more than keen to head up into the supers (after I'd put them back onto single brood early in the year).
H