Question about supers

jmsk · July 30, 2007, 08:54:01 AM

I live in south PA and I would like to know how many supers do you need on a avrage hive?
I was also woundering when to put the supers on at the begining of the year?

Robo · July 30, 2007, 09:19:51 AM

Are you asking about brood chambers or honey supers? For brood chambers, I would say 2 deeps is the average, but it depends on the strength of the colony. Weaker hives should not be given more room then they need, so sometimes 1 deep is sufficient, especially in the Spring.

Honey supers depend on the strength of the hive and how the nectar flow is. I can't say there is an average number as things fluctuate to much. You only add honey supers as they are needed.

BlueEggFarmer · July 30, 2007, 09:38:02 AM

To add to the original question:
How often should the hive be opened up to know that another brood or honey super is required?

Kathyp · July 30, 2007, 11:31:29 AM

you can pretty much tell how full they are by just popping the top and taking a look. if you know the bottom was full and you see the top box is pretty full, add another super. i usually stick a small flashlight in my pocket. i can get a good idea of what they are up to without pulling frames.

before winter, take the thing apart and make sure that they have filled with honey the the supers that you are leaving, . if they have not, feed before winter so that they are topped off.

Cindi · July 30, 2007, 12:27:13 PM

KathyP, what an excellent idea about the flashlight. That thought never once crossed my mind. But you are 100% bang on with that. A little flashlight will be my companion now. I actually have a little tiny snakelight, and that could be really handy the way that it can be bent and turned.

I think that we should resurrect that old post about the "beehive toolbox" that everyone was putting their two cents worth into, and add the flashlight, along with all the other useful little things that everyone helped out with :). Have a wonderful day, greatest of life. Cindi

michelleb · July 30, 2007, 07:08:01 PM

A good way to get a look at boxes (brood or surplus) is to remove and set on end each box and look at the bottom. If you see swarm cells at the bottom, you need to open up the brood nest (by either inserting empty frames or by adding a brood box). This also makes it easy to scrape burr comb.

How about supers? Well, if you're working with bare foundation, you'll want to rotate undrawn frames into the middle of the super, and only add additional boxes once the last one is about 70% drawn. Otherwise, you risk the "chimney effect", where bees draw out the middle few frames in each box. (Also a problem with brood boxes.)

But if you have supers of drawn, empty foundation, the more the merrier. From what I can understand, lots of empty comb will encourage a strong colony to gather more nectar.

Michael Bush · July 30, 2007, 09:06:56 PM

>how many supers do you need on a avrage hive?

Somewhere between none and seven. :)

jmsk · July 31, 2007, 10:22:16 PM

Do I put one honey super on at a time and wait till it gets full before I put another one on, or should I put them all on at once? :?

pdmattox · July 31, 2007, 10:26:16 PM

I would put one on and when 70-80% drawn and filled put another under it.

Michael Bush · August 01, 2007, 07:16:35 AM

>Do I put one honey super on at a time and wait till it gets full before I put another one on, or should I put them all on at once?

Once they are all drawn and you're in a flow you can put them all on at once. Until then it's better to wait until they are at least working the last one since they often tear up the foundation in the upper ones to draw comb in the lower ones and foundation often melts and sags. Of course if you have plastic foundation this may not be so much of a problem.