Mediums or Shallows for honey supers

bwallace23350 · February 23, 2017, 01:04:15 PM

A friend of mine was telling me he likes mediums for supers. He has been keeping for 8 years. All I have this year are shallows but should I invest in mediums for my honey supers. He also said that for the past few years the bees have struggled to fill the mediums up.

iddee · February 23, 2017, 02:10:35 PM

Preferrence..... Mediums for extracting, shallows for comb honey.

Reality........... Use what you have, then purchase preference when replacement or addition is required .

bwallace23350 · February 23, 2017, 02:16:20 PM

Thanks. I hear deeps are heavy but I am in really good health and shape so would you recommend that possibly?

Acebird · February 23, 2017, 02:47:03 PM

Not towards the end of a flow where you end up with frames half full to extract.

Michael Bush · February 23, 2017, 02:55:06 PM

"...no man's back is unbreakable and even beekeepers grow older. When full, a mere shallow super is heavy, weighing forty pounds or more. Deep supers, when filled, are ponderous beyond practical limit."--Richard Taylor, The Joys of Beekeeping (emphasis is mine)

I run all eight frame mediums. There are more things available for mediums than shallows. Things like frame feeders or plastic foundation etc. Most of these are not available in shallows. However shallows are tempting for the weight factor...

bwallace23350 · February 23, 2017, 05:02:23 PM

Thanks. I might end up buying some mediums next year. Right now money does not allow for mediums. I am in the middle of a big orchard expansion.

iddee · February 23, 2017, 05:32:49 PM

If your area struggles to fill a medium, you don't need deeps.

I was carrying 100 lb. sacks of cow feed when I was 10 or 11 years old, so I never owned a shallow or medium until I was 50. I've never had a deep go over 100 lb. A deep of honey may be too much for today's snowflakes.

Nothing personal, Micheal, but when I harvest, extract, and process a super, I prefer to get 4 1/2 gallon to 2 1/2.

bwallace23350 · February 23, 2017, 06:03:18 PM

My friend and I are in very different locations. The closet beeks to me say they fill out their shallows and mediums well.

Beeboy01 · February 23, 2017, 08:38:46 PM

I use what I have which are deeps and shallows. If I'm working with a full deep I pull a couple frames out of it to lighten it up. Shallows are the same amount of work for extraction but only give about half the honey.

Acebird · February 23, 2017, 08:51:33 PM

My grandmother always said (God rest her soul),"A half a loaf of bread is better than none". If you start with nothing and you are greedy you usually end up with nothing. If you start with something and you share you end up with a friend which is priceless.

Joe D · February 24, 2017, 12:17:47 AM

I still have deeps for brood and started with shallows supers now I have some mediums supers. Whichever you have will work fine. Some times the shallows feel pretty good when extracting. I have about quit doing comb honey.

Good luck to you and may you fill all your supers several times.

Joe D

Beeboy01 · February 24, 2017, 10:41:59 AM

Having all one size of supers does have advantages, you can move brood around from one box to another along with moving honey frames into one box if needed.
I inherited deeps and shallows from my dad so I stuck with them but one size of boxes would be the way to go if I was starting all over again.

lazy shooter · February 24, 2017, 12:56:11 PM

At 77 years old, the honey filled mediums are a load for me. I have deeps and mediums. The deeps are for brood only, at least that was my plan, but once last year I ended up with a deep full of honey. It was a LOAD. My thoughts are that all mediums would be the way to go. I am now moving to medium eight frame hives. Someone above noted that having all boxes the hive management easier. That is true.

Beeboy01 · February 24, 2017, 05:13:23 PM

I had a full deep on the top of a tall hive and boy was it work getting it off the hive and down where I could work on it. I'm still chuckling about it cause it was a hot day and I was suited up in a cotton bee suit.

iddee · February 24, 2017, 06:43:35 PM

SURPRISE. SURPRISE. A DEEP WITH 10 FULL FRAMES OF HONEY ONLY WEIGHS ABOUT 6 LBS..............................................

If you lift one frame at a time. How can 6 lbs. hurt your back?

Acebird · February 24, 2017, 09:01:08 PM

If you get the bees out of it first it won't.

Joe D · February 26, 2017, 12:46:55 AM

I have done as iddee said, I would take some supers with drawn comb or with foundation, swap out full frames with empty frames. Smoke and brush the frames to get bees off, have a board under and one over the super you are putting full frames into.

Joe D.

yes2matt · February 26, 2017, 11:14:15 AM

The weight issue, for me, isn't the carrying of the box with honey in it. It's holding it out perpendicular and putting it down gently if there's reason to get into the hive during the flow. I have mediums and they get heavy.

But it's also an issue of ratios, wood and air space to honey. More wood is more expensive and more physical frames to uncap and spin and store, and more bee space in the stack, for a given amount of honey.

Sent from my SM-J327P using Tapatalk

Acebird · February 26, 2017, 01:02:00 PM

Quote from: yes2matt on February 26, 2017, 11:14:15 AM
It's holding it out perpendicular and putting it down gently if there's reason to get into the hive during the flow. I have mediums and they get heavy.

https://www.facebook.com/100011367786490/videos/404957339893189/
I made this hive box jack so I can harvest honey easier. The bee escape clears the box of bees and I feel it is much easier to take off the hive when I know there is no bees in it. If I wanted to put a full box back on (I don't know why I would want to) I could place an inner cover on top of the hive then the box and use the jack to remove the inner cover. Using smoke lower each side of the full box down onto the hive. The back thing is really a limitation for me. One false move and I am laid up for weeks. Certainly it takes more time to do this procedure but it assures me that I can continue to keep bees.

Fusion_power · February 27, 2017, 05:06:18 AM

Box size is all about the beekeeper and management of the bees and has very little to do with bee preference. Choose your hive carefully to save time and choose supers to save your back. I switched over to square Dadant hives over the past year. I am using square shallow 5 11/16 supers for honey mostly because they do not weigh as much as other options. Among other advantages, square hives stack up a lot lower than other hives such as Langstroth. They can be rotated 90 degrees and the boxes will still fit. Among disadvantages, 11 5/8 inch deep square boxes full of bees weigh quite a bit. I am healthy and my back is still in decent shape so moving them does not bother me. A distinct advantage of shallow supers is that they work very well with short intense flows where single floral honey can be produced. I often separate honey from brambles such as blackberry from later honey because the price of the honey is better when sold by floral source.