Honey Bound

[Bush_84]

Quick question. As a result of my winter loss I had a ton of extra comb. Most of it had honey in it. I treated with nosema last fall. Now I?m getting concerned that I may be getting honey bound. I don?t have much for empty comb to use. So my question essentially is can I super them without worrying about bees moving fumagillin into the supers? 

Edit-I should specifically state that I am not honey bound as of right now. All my hives have established brood nests. I just worry I might start heading in that direction without action.

[moebees]

Quick question. As a result of my winter loss I had a ton of extra comb. Most of it had honey in it. I treated with nosema last fall. Now I?m getting concerned that I may be getting honey bound. I don?t have much for empty comb to use. So my question essentially is can I super them without worrying about bees moving fumagillin into the supers? 

Edit-I should specifically state that I am not honey bound as of right now. All my hives have established brood nests. I just worry I might start heading in that direction without action.

No you do need to worry about moving fumagilin into the supers.  Bees move nectar and honey around in the hive all the time.  There is no such thing as the no peeing section of the swimming pool.  Probably best not to treat with fumagilin. 

[Acebird]

The only thing I can think of is to extract the honey and label it tainted.  Only use it for feed for overwintering or expansion when there are no honey supers on.  Nothing is perfect once you treat but you can try to limit tainting the good honey.  I don't know how far along you are with the packages you got but they would have been the opportunity to use these frames.

[Bush_84]

There?s two reasons I?m here. First is that I had a lot of deadlits with honey. Second is that spring was so late that we have had nonstop nectar flows since it got nice out.

[Acebird]

Maybe a third, the late spring probably resulted in late packages.

[Bush_84]

Actually the packages came the same time they normally come. The three nucs I bought may be been late but in relation to the packages they were ready less than a week later.

I think for now I?ll put in some of my partially drawn comb in or next to the brood nest. The queen can lay eggs in there right away and the bees can burn some of that honey drawing a little com. I?ll take out some of the fullest combs.

[Acebird]

If you have such a heavy flow they won't be burning honey.  I am not sure they will even move it.  Can you extract the honey they are bringing in now?

[Bush_84]

I?m not sure what is what anymore. There was some uncapped when I installed the bees. My gut tells me if I super them they will put dandelion honey up there but I?m not sure.

[Acebird]

I?m not sure what is what anymore. There was some uncapped when I installed the bees. My gut tells me if I super them they will put dandelion honey up there but I?m not sure.

As much as I hate doing it Nadir-ing has the advantage of getting the older honey capped while they work on the new box below.  This problem of having uncapped honey in the supers in the spring is one of the reasons I don't harvest in the spring.  I am too lazy to Nadir.

[Bush_84]

Ya I was thinking about that.

[Michael Bush]

Reasons not to use Fumigillan:

1) it  is no longer manufactured.
2) it causes birth defects in mammals
3) it makes Nosema cerana worse and Nosema cerana has almost totally displaced Nosema apis
4) by killing off the gut bacteria that make up the lining of a bee's gut, it makes them more susceptible to Nosema (both of them) which is what you wanted to prevent, as well as making them more susceptible to AFB, EFB and chalkbrood.
5) of course it will get moved around

The only upside is that Fumigillan has a short life, so if you used it in the fall most of it will break down by spring.  However if you use it in the spring, there will probably be some of this birth defect causing chemical in your honey...