After some advice, supers being refilled!

[Butchtaylor]

Good evening everyone.

Just started Beekeeping this year, and had a lovely honey harvest. around 70Kg of honey.
I did a early harvest and then one at the beginning of September, i had intended to do it sooner but had broken my hand and could not lift the supers.
After the harvest i refitted 3 supers to one hive for them to clean out and 1 back to the other hive,making sure they went back on the original hives they came off. With the intention of storing the supers away in the shed over winter once they had been cleaned up, with all the other spare hive parts.

I work nights so tend to do most of the husbandry early morning or early evening.

The large colony i have has nearly refilled all 3 supers, when i checked they have loads of stores in the double brood they are on too. The smaller colony is also on double brood boxes and they have stores in the brood and started on the super again.
Currently they are both configured with supers at the top and still have the Queen Excluders in place. when i did my check today i had intended to remove the QEs but was so surprised that they had refitted to such an extent i was not sure what to do.

Should i remove the QEs and see if they cap the supers then harvest it again?
Or just put all 3 on the bottom and let them go for it over the winter?
would the stores in the double brood be enough to see them through if i did a second harvest?

As i am new i welcome any and all help/feedback.

[AdamD]

Your bees seem to be doing well.
I suppose that having too much honey is a good problem to have. Depending on where you are in the country, I would be inclined to leave the excluders and supers on for a wee while if they are filling up. Note that if it's ivy honey they are gathering it can have a strong flavour and sets hard in the comb quickly so it will need to come off quite quickly once it is being capped. The strong aroma/flavour does reduce over time.

[DianeBees]

We've had a flow from Balsam in the past. Not so much this year. It means late removal of supers and an extra crop.
Dealing with uncapped stuff that's not at the right water level is tricky - you have the option of feeding it back to them to put in the brood box though. Or depending on the amount there is then jar it and give it to people who will eat it quickly. Or make some mead.

[Steve (The Drone)]

Perhaps you omitted to put the extracted supers above the crown board. If they went straight over the QX then the bees regard them as part of the colony and will refill them - instead of robbing them. You could put one super for each hive below their respective brood chambers. That then leaves you with two uncapped supers to deal with as Diane suggests.

[AdamD]

One way to clear a part-filled super is to put it under the brood box, it works even better if you have a small eke (spacer) with an entrance between the low super and the bb and then close off the entrance in the floor. The bees will learn where the new entrance is soon enough and as the honey is below the brood and separated from it, the bees will bring it up to where they want it.

[Jim Norfolk]

One of mine now has two part filled supers under the brood box. Too many frames with honey in to amalgamate into one box. Hopefully the bees will have both supers emptied in time for next spring. Meanwhile they provide lots of extra space for what appears to be an autumn flow. Bees very active on fuchsia and ivy today in mild weather.

[Butchtaylor]

Perhaps you omitted to put the extracted supers above the crown board. If they went straight over the QX then the bees regard them as part of the colony and will refill them - instead of robbing them. You could put one super for each hive below their respective brood chambers. That then leaves you with two uncapped supers to deal with as Diane suggests.

yes i had put them back on top of the QXs. i did not know about putting them above a crown board to be honest. Now would that be a crown board with the holes for porter bee escapes?

i have noticed the highest super is now considerable lighter than is was when i first posted so they must be moving it around.
do like the idea of making mead though

[AdamD]

Remove one porter bee escape and put the part-filled super on that. The bees usually bring the honey down to the brood nest as they think something above the crown board is outside the nest. (Best to put on in the evening). However if there is a flow on, they will still fill it if there is no other room in the hive!