Bees super busy

Bees still busy in the super

Wanted to start feeding the bees on Monday, so they could store enough for the winter, but the silly billies are still storing nectar and pollen in the supers. While it's great that they are still foraging quite nicely, I do feel they might have got the hint and stopped storing in the supers. The hint is what every beekeeping book tells me that bees instinctively realise: everything above the crown board is not the hive and therefore forage and free for all. Now, despite my super being above the crown board, my little loony bees have decided this is still their hive and are using it for storage. So much for the bee books. I should leave them in the hive over winter so the bees can read in them how to behave.

Beautifully multi-coloured pollen

But the problem remains: how do I get the supers cleared quickly so I can start feeding? As the bees obviously won't listen to me (and I don't really know how to communicate with them), I decided a different approach.
Using a spare super, I placed those frames with only few stores in them in that and left it on top of the Moon hive, exposed to elements and wasps. Yes, I know. This was an open invitation to all wasps in the area to help themselves. My reckoning was though that the workforce in the Moon would be big enough to clear most of the supers and the wasps would not get that much.

Frames ready to be emptied and then stored

And sure enough - within a day the bees had cleared the five or so frames and I was able to put those away for storage. Buoyed by that success, I am now taking a super frame or two out a day and putting it on top of the hive. The bees will collect the stores from there and store them wherever. Even if they store the food in the supers, it won't matter, as eventually all frames will be removed and then the bees will have to store it in the brood box. Mission accomplished (hopefully). But I'm sure there must be easier ways of getting the bees to store their forage in the brood box come autumn.
Currently I have five frames left in the super and hope to have those cleared by Saturday, so I can start feeding then.

Concerning storage, I asked our maintenance team to make me two plywood planks of 460x460. These I have put underneath and above the super holding the empty frames and thus have a hopefully quite tight and secure way of storing the super frames for next year.

An invitation to any passing wasp