How many supers per hive to own?

[JohnRoss]

Hi all, I was just wondering how many supers people have per hive. All my hives are double brood nationals also broos half way up the first super (I don't use a queen ex). Any hive which hasn't tried to swarm yet this year has now 5 supers on. 3 which are 80% capped but still fail the shake test, along the bottom few rows of cells. 1 which is filling with nectar and one being drawn.

My main flow comes in July. Last year I only had one hive and it filled 3 and 1/2 supers in July. I suppose I should have the spring supers extracted by that stage so that will ease the pressure on equipment. But my question is, having 5 colonies on double and a half brood how many supers should I have in reserve?

 

[Finman]

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It is time to extract capped honey that you may use combs again and honey does not crystallize.

It does not help you if you know how many boxes others have.

You have good pastures there and you are very good beekeeper when you are able to handle those hives and yields.

 

[masterBK]

Years ago before OSR I used to extract at the end of July/beginning of august continually adding supers as required so some hives ended up as towering structures. Things had to change with OSR because of the crystallisation problem as mentioned by Finman. I find that I need a max of 70 supers for my 25 colonies as the full supers are taken off, extracted and put back in a cycle (I tend to extract about 12 supers at a time before I get fed up with the sticky process).

So John in answer to your question I would think with 5 colonies you could manage with 15 supers BUT unlikely you will stick with 5 colonies and a few spare supers always come in handy.

 

[JohnRoss]

Hi Fin, I would like to extract, I bought a new estractor and am really looking forward to try it out, however each frame in the top three supers has been only bee capped in the top 80% of cells. The bottom few rows is not yet ripened and when I shake the frame nectar dripps out.

Master BK,

I don't think that 15 is nearly enough. That is only 3 supers each. My hives already have five supers on and if I go back this weekend and don't have a super that is fully ripened they will be going up to six.

I wrote a thread on this last july when one hive last year in July had seven supers on it. One super containing brood. Finman seemed to be the only person on this forum to think that was normal.

 

[Finman]

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It all depends how good layers are you queens.
It the hive has 15 langstroth frames brood, the hive needs for honey 4-6 boxes.

If you have 2 boxes capped honey, you need 4 boxes to nectar, plus brood boxes.
And frames....

Critical point comes when the flow is very good.

You need boxes too to nucs, artificial swarms, spare frames, and so on.

All queens are not able to lay 2 boxes. One is enough

If I say that I need to each hive 6 langstroth boxes, it is quite near the truth.

In my system the lowest box is full of pollen after main yield. If it is not there, it is all around frames, like in honey frames.

 

[Finman]

3 supers to each hive...then change quickly the queens..
Perhaps honey does not need boxes, but number of bees need enough room...

A math...one capped super needs 2 nectar boxes...otherwise it is swarming.

I have noticed that spring rape, raspberry and fireweed give huge flows. To catch the yield hive needs lots of capacity.
As I have seen with balance hive, the hive may get 5-7 kg a day honey and 50 kg in a week.

If the hive makes beards, the result may be half from that.

 

[enrico]

Remember, if the bottom 20 percent of honey is slightly over high water content and it is mixed with 80 percent below water content you should end up with an average of the two which suggests it might be fine! This is where a refractometer is so valuable. A quick check of a few cells from the bottom 29 percent will let you know just how close you are to the acceptable water content!!?
E

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

It's a trick question. The correct answer is of course "zero" since this problem would at least be simplified if you used only brood-size boxes.

And stop making me jealous; I want to reach through the screen and drop a full box on your foot. Only I don't have one :- )

<ADD>P.S. note the data point for the discussion on QEs...</ADD>

 

[Finman]

It's a trick question. The correct answer is of course "zero" since this problem would at least be simplified if you used only brood-size boxes.

And stop making me jealous; I want to reach through the screen and drop a full box on your foot. Only I don't have one :- )

<ADD>P.S. note the data point for the discussion on QEs...</ADD>

Super means boxes over brood.

They are many size. Our favorite is American medium as super, but I have guite mixed. Full langstroth is difficult lift down, but more difficult to lift top most.

We say brood box and honey box.