# Supering from the bottom rather than top? (above excluder)



## Dirtslinger (Feb 10, 2007)

I took a basic beekeeping course where they suggested taking off all of the supers to then add the empty one directly above the brood chambers.
Yes- heavy lifting- total pain in my opinion, but they say you will generate more honey.
Question is... HOW do you know when you need to super? A weekly removal of all the full supers just to see? Seems like a lot of work!!
By the way I'm not using many excluders this year- just using it as an example for placement. THANKS!!


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

That is just the way I do it. But I never go more than 4 high and add 2 at a time. When the 4 supers are full and the girls need more I remove the 4 full ones for extracting when I get enough stacked in the honey house to make it woirth while.
I just remove the outer and inter cover, look between the frames of the supers if it is drawn out with new white comb it is time to add more supers. 

 Al


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

That is the way to do it. I cant store full supers in this part of the country though, the moths and beetles find them very quickly. 

You can do the same thing without all the lifting by blocking off your bottom board entrance and shimming (with woodshims) between the top of the hive body and the first super for an entrance. Then when you need to add the next super you stack it on top and move the shims up. 

I am no pro on the issue, but from what I have seen in feral colonies I believe the bees prefer to have the honey at the entrance and the brood and queen as far from that point as possible.


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## Durandal (Aug 19, 2007)

This is my first year so I am robbing in small quantities. I have a rubbermaid containers just wide enough to take frame. 15 in all. I rob from 9 hives all of which have one super each. I have done this once and now I am replacing fully drawn frames with fully drawn frames.

They simply keep hauling it in massive quantities. I have already bottled and sold it at market today.

Just using mason jars and jelly jars for the time being.

The rubbermaid container has a nice seal though and seems to do the trick. I stored my new boxes before putting them on hives stacked one on top of each other with the top and bottom ones sealed in plastic to form a barrier (minaly dust and dirt in my case) till they were used.

Could you use that to protect the full supers?


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

Sounds like a good plan, but are you just storing frames or full supers? I store full and drawn out frames in a freezer. In the winter I keep bees in all of my supers to protect the comb.

being the first year you are probably safe this season from SHB and wax moths.


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## Durandal (Aug 19, 2007)

That is the question...I honestly have no idea how I am going to store stuff this year. Its been so far and above what I was expecting.

I have gone from zero drawn frames to over 200 in less than 90 days and they keep drawing a nice clip. I am about to start cycling extracted frames back in.

I have space to store I am not too sure how I am going to do so. I do not have the freezer space though.


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

I had three freezers and just cut back to two because one of them was a commercial store front model and was hard on the power bill.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

I don't know about SHB, but for wax moth, you can use this. It works quite well.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203563


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

I am treatment free so that will not work for me

I had a removal in a support column earlier this summer that I was experimenting driving them out..... Bee quick and bee gone did not work..... I had read somebodies posting a while ago about using moth balls to get bees out of a tree.... so I put a few in and wated a few days.....the bees stayed put....then I put in a full box......and then two...... After about a week you could smell moth balls from 50 ft away and the bees never left the column. A bunch of wax moth larva did though....they where crawling all around the floor


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

Do you scrap burr comb?
Do you move frames around to get them to draw?
Do you have screen bottom boards?
Do you feed?
Do you keep entrances clear of weeds?
Do you requeen?
Do you make splits to reduce swarming?
Do you prep in any way for winter?

If you do any of the above, you are not treatment free.

Zentari is a bio pesticide, not a man made chemical. The spores become active when ingested by the larva and destroy it from within, then leave more spores for the next generation. 

http://strawberry.ifas.ufl.edu/chemicalinfo/xentari.pdf


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

Not even going to start this debate again on this or any other forum


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

Aw, com'on, you ain't no fun. :shrug:


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Any drawn comb you want to store just place it in a freeze for 24 hours to kill wax moth larva an eggs. Yhen store them in some cool dry place with some type of cover to keep any moths from laying new eggs in them.

 Al


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