How many honey super to buy?

[Andrew C]

Later today I will be ordering my 6 5/8" super and I don't really know how many I will need for this year. I have four hives, each were installed with 5 frame nucs about a week and a half ago. All of them have about 7-8 frames drawn out and seem to be very healthy with lots of bees and brood. I will be adding another hive body to each of them tomorrow. I live in southern Minnesota and the honey flow I am told is weeks away due to a cold wet spring. Any guess as to how many honey supers I should have on hand per a hive. I realize there are many factors that can affect this. I am just looking for an educated guess as I don't want to spend more than I have to.

[MapMan]

You'll always need more, or so it seems, as far as equipment is concerned... I'd start at two per hive, minimum - you can always pull and extract and drop on again...

We *were* going into black locust flow here, but we got deluged with rain this past weekend - massive flooding and road washouts, dams failing, reservoirs being drained, bridges out. And, it appears that bees don't like to fly during rain. Basswood flow should be on fairly soon, so perhaps we can get some flow, if the rain holds off.

Get those brood boxes on soon

MM

[Andrew C]

Thanks, I will start with three per a hive just to be sure. I guess I didn't think of pulling, extracting and replacing. Thanks for the input!

[Joseph Clemens]

I am beginning to harvest now, mostly Mesquite honey. This year I had lots of drawn comb that I reused - comb that was drawn in previous seasons. This season I only had about ten colonies that I was able to build up for honey production. I was able to build twenty 5-frame Nucs by stealing brood from these colonies which also helped keep them from swarming. The strongest of the ten had filled six supers each, before the Mesquite flow was half over, and the weaker ones had filled four. My very stationary, horizontal "long hive" (which is the length of two 10-frame supers and has 22 deep frames) filled eleven 8-frame medium honey supers. The Mesquite flow is starting to fade away now, I bemoan that if I had more supers ready to put on the hives they could have brought in even more honey. Remember that the bees need lots of comb area to store nectar in while they ripen it into honey.

Extract and replace sounds good, in theory, but despite my intentions to do this, my schedule rarely gives me the luxury to actually accomplish this goal.

What I am trying to say is, if you think you may use six, better to get sixteen ready, than to find those six filled when you may still have a month or more of honey flow remaining. Being congested with nectar, pollen, honey, and brood, this may inspire swarming, which can affect your colonies health and strength, swarms also take honey with them when they go.

[Budster]

Good question... I guarantee that if you buy 20, you'll only need 8. Buy 8 and I'll guarantee you'll need 20... I just keep buying as I go.. Never seem to get it right. I'd start with 10 for now and watch to see if I need to reorder later.

[BGhoney]

Depends on how long it takes to get supers. I live about 30 minutes from a supplier . I can nail , glue and paint and be ready the next day. Remember they can fill drawn faster than new.

[Andrew C]

Thanks for all the advice, I ended up going with 13 being that it takes me about a week to get more. I guess you're right, I'm going to need them sometime.