How To Know The PERFECT Time To Add A Super

In this video, I'm going to tell you why for this colony here it's still too early to be adding supers, and why adding those supers at this point really does set you back. So a few weeks ago, I showed you a video about how to transfer a nuc into a beehive. This is the colony that we did that with, and it's about 2 weeks since we transferred them in. 6 frames went into the middle of this hive, put foundation on the outer edges, and then I started feeding them, just giving them some fondant just to keep them going, but you can start feeding sugar syrup as well. Either way, it doesn't really make a massive difference. And then what I said I'm looking for is that when 80% of those frames are filled with bees, so 80% filled with bees, that's a good rule of thumb as to when you should start going and putting your supers on. What you also need to look out for though is the number of frames of brood, and I would suggest you want to super up on a single brood box like this when you're around 7 or 8 frames of brood. Don't take that number too literally, you kind of want to morph both of those together. So roughly 80% of the frames or 6 to 8 frames of brood, something like that. But there are a couple of risks you do need to take into account at this point of the year. So the first one is, is that if you keep on just feeding, feeding, feeding and you don't put the super on, so you leave it too late to put the super on, highly likely that this colony here will say, we've had enough, there's not enough space, we're going away, we're going to swarm. That's a risk that you definitely want to mitigate. The next risk that you want to mitigate is that the colony starves. This April is a very, very difficult April. Normally I'd say March is the month where the majority of colonies starve. I'm seeing colonies at the moment though that are so, so light. They're building up strong, lots of frames of brood, but hardly any stores. That's the situation that we find ourselves with on this colony here. I reckon they're around 70% full in terms of that brood box as a cluster on top, and if some of the frames were heavy I would suggest we're getting close to putting supers on. What we're seeing in here though is 70% cluster size, but a very, very light box. I'm not going to put the supers on for 2 reasons. One, because if I put the feeders on, I have to stop feeding automatically, which means that this colony here is then at the mercy of the forage that's available. And if you've got really good weather, might be a risk you're willing to take. In North Wales, I've got a couple of days of nice weather and then it's going back to 12, 13 degrees. So I'm much more comfortable leaving the feed on this colony here. And then the other risk kind of associated with that is if you take all of the feed off and then put the super on top of it, they need to get even more energy into the colony here in order to draw out all of those frames. So in this video, I'm going to show you a classic example of when it's too early to put supers on your colonies. So here's a colony of bees. I've still got my fondant on, 2 kilogram slab they had of that. They're probably like 60% of the way through it, but the bees are very, very light still. So I'm just going to take that fondant off now, put it off to one side, show you the rough cluster size, pull out some frames, show you that there's a good amount of brood, hardly any stores, and then talk to you about the next steps for this colony. So it's really easy to see the frames that overwintered and the new frames that I've put in. The dark ones in the middle, that's the original nuc. And then the new lighter color wood, that is the foundation that we put in. You can see these 2 frames over here. They have not touched those at all. And then you can see over here, they've started to work those frames out very gradually. This is a slow, gradual process. Don't think I need to do stuff to make my colony go quicker. If you start tinkering, doing too much, you generally end up making something go wrong. The first few weeks of buildup with a nuc is very, very slow. And then it goes boom all of a sudden. You get a really big emergence of brood and you'll come back one day and you'll be like, oh my goodness, there are so many bees in here. I'm going to pull out some frames now though. I'll show you what they're looking like and then we'll talk about just how long it will be until you can add a super into this colony. So you can see first frame along there, not touched that at all. 2 or 3 weeks after we've introduced it, do not worry if this is what you're seeing. You just need to make sure that there's a good amount of brood, good eggs, Bees are there, queen's still intact, they will grow, you just need to give them a little bit of time. So first frame that I've pulled out, you can see really good amount of pollen going in, they've got a tiny bit of stores. This is one of the original frames that was a heavy frame of stores when it went in, they're working their way through it. You can see nectar's coming in as well, that's really good to see, that's what they need in order to rear brood and to draw out that wax. So very nice first frame. And then on the other side of the cluster, you can see our F1 Buckfast queen. And also you can see on this frame they've been drawing it out, good amount of drawing out on this side, and it fades over to nothing over this side. This is what you're generally going to see in the first few weeks. Going to see a little bit of activity on those frames. Queen's looking really nice, she's just doing her thing. And you're going to see a lot of frames of brood. So here's another frame on the very outside now. And as you can see, again, they're starting to draw it out. It's a slow process, just need to give them time. And then you can see that final frame right up against the edge, they've not even touched that yet. So just to give you a little summary of what we're seeing here: frame of foundation, frame of foundation, full frame of brood, full frame of brood, full frame of brood, full frame of brood, full frame of brood, full frame of brood. This is a frame of mixed stores that they've drawn out. This is the one that's got about half a frame drawn out and then another frame of foundation. This colony is going to expand at an incredible rate over the next 2 weeks, maybe 10 days to 14 days. It's got 6 full frames of brood, maybe 6 and a half frames of brood, hardly any stores, and then a couple of frames of foundation. If this is what you're seeing in your colonies, do not stop feeding just yet. Give them a little bit more food, but definitely do not put your supers on just yet. If you put your supers on just yet, you'll give the bees the urge to draw out all of those additional frames, but more importantly than that, you're taking away the ability to go back on and feed without taking that super away. Need to practice a little bit of patience at this time of the year, because if your colony is looking like this, I can guarantee fast forward 2 weeks One of two things is going to have happened. If you stop feeding them and they expand at this rate, and then you get a really bad patch of weather, your bees will starve. Guaranteed, your bees will starve. These are on the brink of starving here. Or if you just continue to feed while that colony is expanding, the bees are going to swarm. Beekeeping is all about timing, and you just need to make sure you get your supers on at the correct time. I will follow this video back up with this exact colony, showing you when I think is a suitable time to put your supers on. But if your bees are looking like this, it's definitely too early. If you want to check out a rough rule of thumb video for adding supers after you've added the first super of the year on, check out this video here where I talk about that 80% rule.