Supers!

The season has got off to a flying start, despite some uncertainties and messings around with Moon queens and each hive has one more or less full super. While I will need to extract that soon (I assume most of this will be rape honey, which sets and crystallises rather quickly, making it difficult to spin out), I also needed to give the bees more space to store their honey in.

Having spent the previous two evenings testing the patience of my neighbour with my hammering, I drove down to the hives with 20 super frames all made up as well as a brand new super. I didn't open the hives completely, merely putting the new supers on top of the full ones. The Star, as I had foreseen from the previous inspection, was fairly full to bursting, so obviously needs the super. The Moon, for a change, was quieter, but that is also normal given that the new queen has only just started laying. However, I'm sure they'll be glad of the supers and the extra storage space.

The new set-up of high rises