How many supers?

[Nbw]

Hi all.
Both my hives are going very strong.
One hive from a split i performed earlier this year is up to 2 supers.
the original hive is now on its 4th super which was added today

How many supers do beekeepers tend to go to as a reasonable number?

Thanks
Nick

 

[blackcloud]

Reasonable is an elastic term.
As high as you can lift?
As high as the stand will take?

Just lately it would appear
As high as you trust your mentor not to steal...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hi all.
Both my hives are going very strong.
One hive from a split i performed earlier this year is up to 2 supers.
the original hive is now on its 4th super which was added today

How many supers do beekeepers tend to go to as a reasonable number?

Thanks
Nick

most of mine have four on at the moment, some have five, many with also a Demaree'd deep in the mix. I put a sixth on one hive at the castle this morning. In the past I have had as many as nine on although it did get a bit awkward at that point.

 

[Nbw]

Interesting. I will see how i get on then. Currently both hives have single national brood boxes...

 

[Curly green finger's]

That all depends on how prolific the queen is , local forage ,weather how you set up your colony’s demaree etc. just to name but a few variables ,but as a general rule they need three to process and dry off the nectar to make one super of honey .
I’ve seen last year 9 and 10 on 20 colony’s not mine all double brood .
Most of my single brood have three or four some doubles are on 5/6.
Demaree again a mixture .
Nucs extended 2/4
Wbc not quite sure?

 

[enrico]

I always remove and extract full ones as I hate the weight of four or five supers and having to remove them all the time so three is high as mine ever get

 

[Swarm]

A sensible approach. Some people love to build towers, it's far safer to clear the full ones.

 

[user 819]

One can ony clear if they seal them, my town garden colony are being very tardy at sealing and it is a tower . Demereed on double brood which the demeree is now back filled with six supers , the empty sixth went on today.

 

[Sutty]

One can ony clear if they seal them, my town garden colony are being very tardy at sealing and it is a tower . Demereed on double brood which the demeree is now back filled with six supers , the empty sixth went on today.

Or you check water content with a hydrometer

 

[Sutty]

I recently united 2 colonies with their supers, a double brood plus 6 supers needed a step to remove them so I've extracted a couple.
More than 4 gets to be a pain.
One bit of advice from personal learning: take them off one at a time (not two) and keep cleaning up the brace comb between supers to keep it easy.
Last year I didn't do this and had to remove 2 very heavy supers together that were welded together & my back suffered badly when I stumbled getting down from the step!

 

[Martimart]

It varies with me through the summer, I have 4 on most hives now, in a week or so I'll have a good look through and put frames that are pretty much capped over into one super and those that are being filled into another, the ones around some edges that a haven't been touched I'll probably put into a super on their own and then take that one off for a week or so. I only have 3 hive in the garden so have the time to bugger about more. I detest extracting day!! so try to keep on top of keeping the supers in some kind of order just to help that process really. I normally have 4 fully drawn and capped supers by August.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I always remove and extract full ones as I hate the weight of four or five supers and having to remove them all the time so three is high as mine ever get

I wish. The only reason I have towers is because the bees aren’t capping the honey.

 

[Sutty]

I wish. The only reason I have towers is because the bees aren’t capping the honey.

Check with a hydrometer & take it anyway if water content low enough?

 

[Swarm]

Open cells at 16% on Monday. Top two are fully capped on most of the hives but even the uncapped frames pass the shake test. It's honey, capped or not

 

[Erichalfbee]

Check with a hydrometer & take it anyway if water content low enough?

I do