9 medium boxes tall...how high can they go?

[TwoHoneys]

Friends, how tall can a single Langstroth hive go?! I've got one that's 9 medium boxes tall...I've had to stake it down with a rope so it doesn't topple in the wind. Three other hives are now 8 boxes high. I'm 5'3", so I haul a step ladder around with me.

I've been reluctant to dig all the way down through the bottom boxes, so I'm not sure they're ALL still full (I doubt they are), but the top box is full of bees and brood and honey, so I added another.

This is the first year I've experienced anything like this. I know the flow's quickly winding down, and soon I'll break the boxes down to see what honey we've got, but seriously...it's both awesome and unnerving.

So...how high can a Lang get?!

-Liz

[JP]

I have one that's in 3 deeps & 3 mediums & not very excited about breaking down something like this!  ;) In a really good flow who knows how many you could put on but who really wants to pull them from a ladder? If I were you I'd get in their and start pulling frames & boxes now!  ;)

BTW, congratulations on such a bounty!


...JP

[TwoHoneys]

If I were you I'd get in their and start pulling frames & boxes now!  ;)

BTW, congratulations on such a bounty!


...JP

Oh gosh. The day of reckoning is suddenly upon me. Okay...I'll do it! This weekend.

[JP]

Just a reminder Liz that you don't have to pull full boxes at a time. Go into your yard with some empty mediums. Pull individual frames, place them in your empty boxes, give them back frames to replace those you have taken. With hives stacked eight boxes up you could likely reduce those by at least two full boxes. Enjoy your harvest!


...JP

[TwoHoneys]

Thanks, JP. As usual, your suggestions are golden to me.

To tell you the truth, I'm afraid there's no capped honey in there. After years of no honey, I can't imagine an actual harvest.

-Liz

[sterling]

I have some that are seven boxes high and I do as JP said, I dig through and take out the frames with capped honey and put empties or foundation in their place. Some of the capped honey will be close to the brood if you will take that they will fill it back pretty quick.

[tillie]

It's such an exciting year.  I have one that is nine boxes tall too and we are planning to harvest next weekend - I know they have beautiful capped honey - I've seen it!

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2012/05/hives-at-jeff-and-valeries-house.html  (see last picture on the post)

Linda T in Atlanta

[David McLeod]

The best I ever had went just over six foot high. It was years ago so I can't recall the exact count but back then I ran double deep with an excluder and shallows.  I'm 6'2" and the stack was one shallow higher.
I caught something in the first post. Did you say there is brood in the uppermost box? If so it sounds like they chimneyed on you working the center only in a straight up direction. I would be interested in taking a peek inside. If I had to guess I would expect to see the outside frames capped with brood running vertically in the center frames. Bees being bees I may be totally wrong and the bees have flipped the norm and all the lower boxes may be capped honey.  Please let us know what you find, like I said I would love to take a peek inside myself. I still love popping the top not knowing what I am going to find.
BTW, I now leave the excluders off like you do and when I catch one moving into the supers with brood and I want to stop them a fully capped out box above the brood usually stops the queen as good as an excluder.

[iddee]

Since they put the brood under the honey, if you have brood in the top box, you likely have 6 empty boxes on bottom.

[Javin]

I've never gone more than 5 mediums high, and never will.  This is due more to the fact that I'm lazy than anything else, but I find that it keeps the hives an easily manageable size so I can reorder the boxes if I find the queen is climbing too high.  I do the same thing David McLeod says, in keeping a full body of capped honey above the brood at all times.  It makes a great queen excluder without damage to the workers' wings. 

If your hives are truly that massive (though I'd suspect you've got quite a bit of abandoned comb, but I wouldn't be surprised if you found a good bit of honey in them) you could consider splitting the hives into multiple smaller, more manageable hives, no?  This would also give you more security if you were to lose any.

[TwoHoneys]

Since they put the brood under the honey, if you have brood in the top box, you likely have 6 empty boxes on bottom.

Great. Well, this wouldn't surprise me.

It's a cloudy day today, so I'll get in there tomorrow...I'll let you know what I discover.

[TwoHoneys]

UPDATE: The sun broke through, so I dug into my hives.

iddee, you were right. Lots of brood and bees in the top boxes, but things were quiet in the lower half. I shifted things around and reduced the overall space by 2 boxes. Very little in the way of capped honey.

I was happy happy happy to see, though, that the "smaller" hives had quite a bit of honey...lots of it capped. I decided to wait a week or two to see if they cap more of it before I harvest.

Oh...I suited up for this one, which is unusual for me. And wouldn't you know it that I got nailed like crazy through my socks.

-Liz

[Michael Bush]

One of the reasons I put mine up against each other, besides to keep warm in winter, is to keep them from blowing over.

Once you get to where you're putting boxes on with a ladder, it's not very practical.  About the only way to get a full super down is to balance it on your head... otherwise you can't balance on the ladder as the super will throw you off.

[rober]

2 summers ago i was amazed to see hives that were 7-8' tall along a bayou just east of lafayette la in the atchafalaya basin. there would be 20-30 hives then a break & then another similar cluster. there looked to be over 100 hives set up this way. i did not ever see the beekeeper so i really wondered how he could work them. maybe he was standing in the back of his truck.