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Author Topic: where on the hive do you place honey supers?  (Read 1928 times)

Offline bailey

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where on the hive do you place honey supers?
« on: May 07, 2009, 08:46:59 pm »
this sounds dumb but i have a question.

where do y'all place honey supers on your hives?
i am asking about foundation not drawn comb.

i have been putting them on top and letting the girls move up but it has occurred to me that if i wanted to not only super but to open the brood nest to prevent swarming it might be smart to take the top brood box and put the new super in under it.

that way they will hatch out the brood and fill the box with honey while at the same time allow open areas in the brood chamber for swarm prevention.

has anyone tried this? and if so how did it work?
i have done this  with 6 hives in an effort to ward off swarming in the main flow period but i haven't ever asked where others put their supers with foundation in the stack.
thanks in advance for the answers and opinions.

bailey

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Offline Kathyp

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Re: where on the hive do you place honey supers?
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2009, 09:13:33 pm »
i put mine on top.  think about your cutouts.  the build down for brood and back fill above and around for honey.  if you are putting honey supers on for honey, you want to put them on top.  if you need more room for brood, then you want another  brood box.  if you end up with to many brood boxes going into winter, you can reduce as you head into fall and brood production drops.  you guys are warm most of the year, so you may need more room most of the year.

that's my logic....and i'm sticking to it   :-D

besides, the queen will use your honey supers if she wants to, unless you use an excluder......you are giving them the potential for more space if they want it.

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Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: where on the hive do you place honey supers?
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2009, 11:36:14 pm »
Middle supering was, at one time, the fad in beekeeping everyone was suppose to place the new super between the top super and the one below it.  Ruined a lot of healthy backs.  It is more work than is necessary.

Keeping the brood chamber open is more about keeping the bees building comb in the brood chambers than it is about how to super.  Super provides expansion room for the growing population. 

In theory it works like this, as long as the hive always as sufficient space in which to grow its population and as long as the hive continues to build comb in the brood chamber it won't swarm.  That is a hard objective to maintain with more than a few hives.  Commercial beeks or even sideliners have too many hives to adapt that stratagey. 

The best thing workable option, I've found, is to give them 4-8 empty frames in the brood chamber in March and then keep ahead of the population growth by adding supers in a timely fashion the remainder of the year.  Add 2 or more if necessary. 

Crowded bees will swarm quicker than anyother situation so preventing crowding is the best option for reducing swarming and harvesting a large crop of honey.
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: where on the hive do you place honey supers?
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2009, 09:00:36 pm »
How do you tell if they are done with a super if you put it under the one they are done with?  How many times do you want to lift a full box?

I just put them on top.
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Offline G3farms

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Re: where on the hive do you place honey supers?
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2009, 09:34:07 pm »
put them on top so you can inspect them, the supers under them will have capped honey in them and will be too heavy to be picking up all of the time to inspect new supers under them. I tried that years ago, Brian hit that one on the head.

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