Moving supers around?

[Yankee11]

Would this work.

I have 16 or 18 hives on beans, cotton etc. The heavy flow is starting from these crops. I have some hives that are filling their 3rd super and some hives are on their first super. Could I move supers around. Pull the capped supers from the really big hives and put empty supers on these big hives. Set the cpped supers and they smaller hives to keep them protected until I am ready to harvest.

I would like to get all the supers full and harvest all at once.

I dont really want to go 4 supers high on these big hives, do I?

[LazyBkpr]

Why not?   
   As long as there are enough bees to inhabit the supers to keep pests at bay they will be fine.  Putting the super on a smaller hive may work.. I have never tried it..  I would be afraid of them moving the honey or not having the bees to keep the pests at bay in those supers..  If I had a hive that needed six supers I would make sure they had six.

[Yankee11]

Ive never gone higher than 3. Have you?

[iddee]

I would put each super in a large trash bag, seal tightly, and freeze for a week. Then store in a cool closet or basement until ready to extract. It has always worked for me.

I would only try switching them if you have NO SHB in the area, no ant problem, and all frames have been sprayed with BT.

[Riverrat]

Sounds like a lot of extra work to me. I dont hesitate to pile the supers on. As long as your hives set level and are on a good base your good to go.

[LazyBkpr]

Yes, had one with 4 supers on it until a week ago. They have already half refilled a wet super I put back on after extracting. The only limit I might set is if I had to use a ladder to add a super..   At that point, as Iddee said I would pull a couple and freeze them for a few days, wrap and take to the extracting room to await extracting day.

   The TALL one on the right of the picture..

[pistolpete]

I regularly have 3 deep supers on a hive, that's roughly equivalent to 5 medium supers.  I do have to use a step stool to get up there.   The thing is that with my hives being set up inside a shed I don't need to worry about a tipsy stack.

[apisbees]

Extract the honey while the weather is warm and put the supers back on the hives to refill Leave them in a cool space for a few weeks and granulation will occur depending of nectar source. If the flow is on when working the hives full supers. set on end on top of hive or neer and the bees will leave on there own. in 1/2 to an hour the honey supers stacked on end will be free of bees.

[iddee]

I've done that at dusk, Apis, but never tried it mid day.

[apisbees]

If there is a flow on I have placed full capped supers on a cover in front of hives and by the time I have gone through the hive the bees are already exiting the super and filing back into the hive. All on there own. do it when there is a dearth and the robbing will happen quickly. So never try it at the end of a flow. Also be aware that plants can be influenced by time and temp. A hive that is happy collecting nectar at 1pm in the afternoon at 86 deg. can become bees looking to rob at 4pm. when the temp hits 98 deg. and the main floral source the bees have been working shuts down because of the heat.