When to add honey super

DeAnne, you're right on both counts. The lower box (brood or previous super) should be well built out before adding an additional super. You want to remove the Apivar in advance (per the instructions) so you don't get pesticides in your honey. However, there might be some other considerations: Is this a newly hived nuc and you still want to build out the foundation? If there is foundation in the super, but no drawn comb, the bees will use lots of resources to build it out, thus leaving less honey. Some folks will feed, even during the flow to make sure the comb is drawn out, keeping in mind that the "honey" in the super may be sugar water nectar. If you leave in the Apivar strip, the honey will be tainted by it. When you rob those supers, indicate that and leave the frames aside to be fed back to the bees during the dearth. You'll have nice comb, well fed bees, but no harvest-able honey -- that first season. If you simply remove the strips, add the super and let them do what they do, you can pull a frame or two of that honey and extract or "cut and crush" the first time around.

One local beekeeper gets so much during the flow this has never been a problem -- she's near fields of forage and kudzu. Others barely get a super per season per hive and their first year foundation is drawn slowly. It all depends on where you are and what the bees feed on.

Anyone else, please chime in with your thoughts.