Super too big

[Zante]

I'm using some old equipment that the owners of the land my bees are on used to keep their bees in. I was lucky enough to find among such equipment also quite a few drawn combs.

Being very old equipment and some of it self-built it's also not exactly standard.

I currently have two supers on my hives, but not much honey in there, so I decided to swap the supers last week, so that I could then clear the super with honey, store those frames, and give my bees a good feeding to get them through August.

Did fine with the stronger colony.

The other one (also strong, just not as much as the other) the super on the top won't fit in the metal corners of the brood box <grumble>.
Now I have to find a super in the pile I have available that either has castellations for 9 frames or no castellations and fits the metal corners of the BB.

Once again, <grumble>.
Sorry, needed to vent a bit of annoyance.

 

[enrico]

Sounds like you need a good sort out, or your equipment does anyway. No good having bits that don't fit together!
E

 

[Teemore]

Always nice to find something useful or which will be useful with a little work.

Old equipment can be sterilised before use but be cautious about using old comb... it can harbour disease.

 

[Zante]

Sounds like you need a good sort out, or your equipment does anyway. No good having bits that don't fit together!
E

Indeed. I'll have to have a good look at all of those boxes, and take a few frames back home for rewiring.

Since here there is only one standard, the only difference is in the number of frames I didn't consider the possibility of bits not quite fitting.
It closes the hive fine, so when it's on top of the other super there are no gaps, it just doesn't fit between the metal corners of the brood box.

I guess when I've gone through the stack of old equipment I'll have to classify it depending on how it fits with the rest. I've already found a super with castellations for 10 frames (the others either have 9 or none).
Not a problem per se, mind you, just something to keep in mind with a 9 frame radial extractor.

 

[Zante]

Always nice to find something useful or which will be useful with a little work.

Old equipment can be sterilised before use but be cautious about using old comb... it can harbour disease.

Everything was sterilised thoroughly before I even bought my bees, and before i was told I could use the equipment. I wanted to make sure my bees couldn't catch something from a visit to the old equipment still smelling of wax and past bees.

 

[JWF]

Can you take the metal corners off the brood box? Or plane down the corners of the super until it fits in the gap? Assuming that it's not out be several inches of course!

 

[Zante]

Can you take the metal corners off the brood box? Or plane down the corners of the super until it fits in the gap? Assuming that it's not out be several inches of course!

It's out by about half a centimetre, which is about half the thickness of the wood. Not something I'd like to do, especially on someone else's equipment I've been allowed to use.

Not a problem, as I said. For a couple of hives I have at least 8 supers to use, plus the two my hives came with, so there's plenty to choose from, I just have to give the equipment a good look. For this year I'll make do with what I have. Three good supers per hive seem more than enough for the first year, especially with the horrible season we've had so far.