Shallow Supers for Brood?

[newbee 101]

I recently aquired a hive from someone. The reason is a story in itself. This man used 3 shallow honey supers for brood. When I picked up the hive, it had 2 extra supers with about 45 lbs of honey. I gave it all back to the bees because the hive seemed to be light. It has now 5 shallow supers for the complete hive. Has anyone seen this before? Is this hive going to make it (with such a small brood area)?
Here is the hive>>>
http://www.acmepainting.com/notsopretty.jpg

[ October 30, 2005, 04:38 PM: Message edited by: newbee 101 ]

[Robert Hawkins]

That jes ain't normal. Seriously, it's not really that bad. If my grandma couldn't lift an eight frame medium I might suggest something like this. But I can't see any other reason for it. Five shallows is enough room to overwinter. But come Spring, If it were mine I'd bee shakin into some real boxes.

Hawk

[BjornBee]

shallows, medium, deeps. Never heard a bee complain yet.
If you add the inched of the frames you have about the same as a deep and a medium for a brood chamber. All together with the five, you have better than two deeps. I don't see any real negatives.

Brood area means little right now. Healthy bees and food stores matter. Its going to be warm at least the next week. See if you can get some feed going.

[Michael Bush]

Like Bjorn says, the bees just don't care. The beekeeper might like the weight better.

[xC0000005]

The first beekeeper I ever encountered (who hooked me) used nothing but shallows. His hives were stacks and stacks of boxes but he said it was much easier to move. Plus, he had a habit of swaping a BOX of brood into weaker hives (I assume after checking for the queen).

[bjerm2]

I use only medium boxes. They weigh about 45-50 lbs when full of honey. When I was in my 20's full deeps (80 lbs) :eek: was not bad to pick up but now after years of working them I want to save my back. The bees do not seem to mind and do a good job filling them. Finding the queen :D , making splits, harvesting honey is so much easier now. I hope this helps you.
Dan

[ October 31, 2005, 12:49 PM: Message edited by: bjerm2 ]

[George Fergusson]

Without doing the math, I'd guess 4 shallows would be roughly comparable to 2 deeps, or 3 mediums. 5 should work fine. I got a bunch of hives this summer from a migratory beekeeper that were a deep and a shallow. I ended up moving them into 2 deeps, but it took some doing- the bees didn't want to vacate those shallows.

I plan to make good use of the shallows next year for mating nucs and such.

George-