How many supers do you keep on at one time?

[AliciaH]

A friend of mine let me borrow her copy of Ormond Aebi's book, "Mastering the Art of Beekeeping".  He talks in his book about noticing that the bees seemed to be more comfortable with more supers stacked over the brood boxes.  Many of us, usually due to lack of resources, tend to only use a couple, then rotate frames out when we need more room.  I don't remember the exact number Aebi said made his bees happy, but I have the figure of 6 in my head, though that could be wrong.

I was just wondering if any of you out there had noticed such a thing and what your thoughts might be.

[FRAMEshift]

How does he know when the bees are "comfortable" ?   How can he tell the difference between their level of comfort at 5 versus their level of comfort at 6?  I have this image of the bees cranking back their lazy boy recliners when you put on box number 6.   :-D

Is there a book called "Mastering the Art of Bull"  ?

[AliciaH]

Well, putting aside the fact that he did all this pre-varroa (can of worms), the guy did manage to produce a good amount of honey.  He also seems to have spent a great deal of time observing his bees and conducting various experiments.

I don't have the book anymore, gave it back to my friend, so I can't quote anything.  But it seems to me that he got more honey per hive by leaving on more supers rather than rotating fewer supers.

I see some pictures on this site of some pretty spectacular towers over the course of the season.  Was just wondering if there was more too that than the bees hadn't finished capping yet.

[AllenF]

I never have more that one empty box on a hive at a time during the flow.   Never want to give the beetles to much space to hide.   

[beyondthesidewalks]

I like Aebi's book (taken in context of when it was written) but I was was going to comment he did that preSHB.  AllenF beat me to it.  You don't want more room in your hive than your bees can defend.  Bees losing the fight to SHB will not be happy and that's not bull or art.:)

My answer is that you have to monitor supers and add when necessary.  I just top super.  If there's a flow on I can look under the cover and decide whether I need to super up or not.  IMO putting 6 empty supers on a hive in this day and age is inviting problems.  I would love to have a hive with 6 supers on it.  If I do the hive will be booming and 5 of the supers will be full or close to full.  The top one will have activity.

[Kathyp]

only 2, but that's because the higher it gets, the harder to fetch them back off!!  :-D

[Finski]

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3 brood and then 3-5 supers for honey.
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If hives are smaller, I join them.

When the colony makes one box capped honey, it needs two other supers where it dry up the nectar.

[backyard warrior]

I have read in the hive and the honey bee its proven that the bees will have more of an urge to collect nectar when there is a significant amount of drawn comb honey supers above the brood nest.  It causes the bees to collect alot of nectar to fill the empty space.  Of course in the south the beetles are an issue probably not a good idea, but up here in the north not so much of a problem.  Have to be sure there is enuff bees to cover the frames to prevent wax moth as well.   Chris

[FRAMEshift]

I have read in the hive and the honey bee its proven that the bees will have more of an urge to collect nectar when there is a significant amount of drawn comb honey supers above the brood nest. 

I think that's true, but it doesn't say how much drawn comb is significant.  If you have a box of drawn comb already, do you get more honey by adding two additional boxes compared to one additional box.  I don't think the bees know how much comb is there beyond knowing that they have enough space to make an all-out effort.

[AliciaH]

Thanks, Everyone, for the input.  Yes, living up north I tend to let that darned SHB slip my mind.  Yuk.  I'll have to read up on the Hive and Honey Bee about the supers, which sounds like it's in the ball park of what Finski is saying, too.  

KathyP:  Ya, reaching the supers might be an issue.  Aebi talks about building scaffolds to reach the tops of his stacks!  I should be so lucky as to ever need to do that!

We'll need to see what happens this year.  I don't have any westerns left with drawn comb now that I've moved from a 2-deep brood box configuration to a deep/western brood configuation.  But I'll give them all the new foundation they can build out and hopefully, I'll need more honey supers!  :)

Hey, I can dream...

[beyondthesidewalks]

"Hey, I can dream..."

After keeping bees for 20 years I still do.  If I ever stop, it'll be time to quit keeping them.  Hope you need six supers on all of your hives this year and make it happen.