How much equipment will I need?

[bpmurray]

Before I get any witty answers, I'm into fishing too, so I get the idea that one cannot pass a fishing/beekeeping shop without popping in.

That said, I got my first hive in early summer 2014 and a second in August, and now have 2 national hives that have (almost) overwintered. I have started to put together frames for the supers and have 3 supers worth. While I know the correct answer is "it depends", how many supers would the experienced beekeeper assume would be needed per hive?

I also have another empty hive and a nuc - would these be sufficient to manage swarms/splitting? My goal isn't to build an empire of bee hives, but rather keep them happy and keep the garden well-pollinated and get a little honey in return, so I won't be splitting each hive into 4 or anything silly. And while on the subject of splitting, should I consider a couple of apideas just in case - I'm sure I can find something to do with any surplus queens if I don't need them

 

[meetballuk]

two or three per hive is what i thought but it depends what the access to an extractor is like?
some of mine split twice!
i bought poly nucs to sell the splits but my queens failed to mate allot last year so they all when back in.
sure someone will put a better response later
depends what you can afford...

 

[itma]

Number of supers depends on forage, weather, bee productivity and your management. Lose a swarm and you'll need fewer supers!

It is hard to say. The extractor bit is important too. If you can extract the moment a super is ready, you'll be able to get it back on quite quickly. BUT supers are needed to provide space for bees - not just honey!

Its hard to have too many - but you also need to think how you are going to store your spares! The more hives you have, probably the tighter you can be - because on average, they won't all be doing excessively well. There's more chance of that with only a couple of hives. Six between two hives should be OK, and if you do need more, you'll be so happy that you won't mind getting them mid-season!


The spare hive & nuc. You need to have (brood) frames for them, made up with foundation. All ready for immediate use!

 

[bpmurray]

Six between two hives should be OK, and if you do need more, you'll be so happy that you won't mind getting them mid-season!

That's what I thought, so I'm probably half-ways there.

Apropos the extractor - my local BKA has one which I can borrow, but I've actually decided that I'd prefer to go with cut-comb so I have 2 supers ready for that and one with wired foundation. I suppose I need another 3, but no rush yet!

The spare hive & nuc. You need to have (brood) frames for them, made up with foundation. All ready for immediate use!

Already done - I have 20 brood frames already made up (beginner's enthusiasm) which is plenty for a hive + nuc. I also have a 3-frame dummy board which I'd use on any new hive from a split anyway, so I think I'm OK there.

 

[madasafish]

My simple rule of thumb for equipment is: equipment expands to fill all the storage available plus 50%..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

This formula works well for me:
Work out how much you think you need
Double it
Then go out and buy twice as much again!
in addition to that (being a fisherman too and knowing these things) buy the odd shiny gimicky trinket you know you'll never use but at the time are convinced you need one.

 

[dn170221]

I think you should try and have 2-3 supers per hive.They need room to dry the nectar-honey as well as store it so extracting on the fly isn't a 100% answer.
Make the frames up but if you can keep the foundation in its wrapper until it is needed (not always possible)
As far as extra brood boxes go, hopefully you will be OK, if not you could borrow kit and or give away swarms. If both colonies swarm and you have been good with managing them MAYBE look at getting a different strain that is reported to swarm less!

 

[enrico]

This thread made me laugh! I had just answered your first thread in the welcome section before I read this one! There I suggested you will end up with five hives by Xmas! Good luck
E

 

[enrico]

This thread made me laugh! I had just answered your first thread in the welcome section before I read this one! There I suggested you will end up with five hives by Xmas! Good luck
Sorry, pressed the submit key twice!
E

 

[madasafish]

This thread made me laugh! I had just answered your first thread in the welcome section before I read this one! There I suggested you will end up with five hives by Xmas! Good luck
E

One new beekeeper in our Association started last year with two hives. She ended the year with --- 10! (now 8 after winter).

She's an expert in hive assembly in a hurry...

 

[bpmurray]

One new beekeeper in our Association started last year with two hives. She ended the year with --- 10! (now 8 after winter).

She's an expert in hive assembly in a hurry...

Ouch - that's not really where I want to go. I'm happy with 2 in the bottom of the garden, and I have a neighbour who'll be more than happy to have a few in his yard if necessary. I fear that if I have too many it'll take the fun out of it - I'd like to rear queens and nucs for the fun of it, but probably not for a couple of years yet.

 

[REDWOOD]

Number of supers also depends on how many times you extract, if you have mono crops and want to sell mono crop honey then that depends on how heavy a flow is. Usually I have two or three super on at one time but never any more.

 

[Cazza]

My simple rule of thumb for equipment is: equipment expands to fill all the storage available plus 50%..

That's about the shape of it. After nigh on 20 years at this,I'm just coming to a point where I have enough kit. Mainly because the shed is full.
Cazza

 

[Jimmys Mum]

This thread made me laugh! I had just answered your first thread in the welcome section before I read this one! There I suggested you will end up with five hives by Xmas! Good luck
Sorry, pressed the submit key twice!
E

I think that this is one of the more underrated of the beekeeping skills - to contain desired numbers by uniting. I am proving to be particularly rubbish at it

 

[wessexmario]

I think that this is one of the more underrated of the beekeeping skills - to contain desired numbers by uniting. I am proving to be particularly rubbish at it

You just have to decide where you're going to keep all the accumulated kit; in the garage, outhouse or shed, and then move it all together... only then and by not subscribing to shop sales publicity emails will you be able to manage the quantity

 

[Otis Hogg]

This formula works well for me:
Work out how much you think you need
Double it
Then go out and buy twice as much again!

This formula works for me too, I started with one hive last May, now we have 4 colonies, a shed full of stuff and im off to buy more stuff tomorrow.

 

[alldigging]

I think that this is one of the more underrated of the beekeeping skills - to contain desired numbers by uniting. I am proving to be particularly rubbish at it

I'm sort of glad I didn't unite hives last year. It might be dividing the amount of thinners they bought to the party will have harmed less bees.

There were some flying the other day but no sign of pollen going in.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think that this is one of the more underrated of the beekeeping skills - to contain desired numbers by uniting. I am proving to be particularly rubbish at it

That's what I keep trying to convince SWMBO

 

[jd101k2000]

The other difficulty is SALES. If you are planning to buy in the sales you will either buy 3 supers per hive and wish you had bought 5, or buy 5 and wish you had bought 7.

As you enter your second year, you are bound to need to do splits and catch swarms... nuc boxes are really useful. (For the actual swarm catching wine boxers are good... not the ones that hold a pouch of wine, the ones that hold 12 bottles of wine.)

Good luck