Honey super size, could I use a deep brood frame ?

[FJA]

Hi
I am a new beekeeper, living in Sydney, Australia.
I have started two hives very recently, one a swarm capture and the other a feral hive cutout.
They both seem to be thriving, and have almost filled two brood boxes (it is midsummer here now).
I made my hive boxes (from scrounged construction site scraps), to standard metric langstroth dimensions.
The brood frames are 230mm deep (9.1 inches).
Just wondering, could I use this same size, for the honey supers ?
(to keep things simple and uniform)
And just harvest one or two frames, at a time ?
Or would this cause problems ?
I only intend to have 2 or 3 hives, in my city backyard, and eat the honey myself.

Jeff

[bigbore]

the problem with your idea, as i see it, is that you won't want to keep handeling a 70+ lb. super of honey to check your bees. And if you keep taking out a frame or 2 of honey to extract you will always have open cells preventing you from taking off the whole thing. I don't think it will hurt you to use a deep super to make honey, but I think you will get tired of handeling it all the time. I thought abput the same idea, but gave it up when I realized how much heavier a deep half full of honey was compared to a deep full of bees..

[JOHN HINCHMAN]

That Is All I Use Because To Me When Harvest Time I Do Not Have To Deal With Little Frames And I Sure Get Alot More Honey Out Of Deeps And If I Need To Start Another Hive I Have Foundation Draw Out And It Jumps Start My Bees, Yes They Are Heavey But I Lift Them Juust Fine?

[Michael Bush]

A ten frame deep full of honey weighs 90 pounds. That's the only downside.

[FJA]

Thanks everyone for the advice, about the weight importance.
I am not really that strong.
I could live with two different frame sizes.
And maybe convert to all mediums, as advocated on the Bushfarms.com website.
(One of my very favorite sources of information - thanks Michael)

[bejay]

while they are heavy if you did pull the whole box, but I usually just pull each frame out and place in a nuc box so I only have to carry 4-5 at a time and seeing how I pull each frame anyway to brush off bees its not much difference to me whether its a meduim or a deep but kinda preffer deeps as you have less frames to extract.

[odfrank]

You get the best drawn combs for future hives by drawing them out as a honey frame.

[FJA]

while they are heavy if you did pull the whole box, but I usually just pull each frame out and place in a nuc box so I only have to carry 4-5 at a time

That is an excellent idea.
Since I have a spare brood box and frames, but not a shallow super box, I will try a deep super, and see how I go.

And If I Need To Start Another Hive I Have Foundation Drawn Out And It Jumps Start My Bees

Another good idea.

You get the best drawn combs for future hives by drawing them out as a honey frame.

Just wondering, do you mean that shallow honey frames are better than deep honey frames ? Are they better because the comb is more robust (in the extractor for example), and so can be recycled more times in future hives ?

[Ruben]

Good Back + 90 lb Supers = Bad Back

[jesuslives31548]

I use 6 5/8 box in 8 frame configuration for Honey supers and brood box. I like the idea of one size box, frames, wax..etc I actually run 7 frames in the honey super. Most are 3 deep brood that I split each year in the late summer. Just my 2cents worth.......

[odfrank]

>Just wondering, do you mean that shallow honey frames are better than deep honey frames ? Are they better because the comb is more robust (in the extractor for example), and so can be recycled more times in future hives ?

I meant that the best deep comb were drawn out in honey supers rather than by a swarm or above a brood nest. Deep combs drawn out in the bottom box always are chewed away above the bottom bar.

[justgojumpit]

odfrank, perhaps this is because the bees prefer to have the added ventilation or communication holes provided by those gaps the chew away. I'm sure there is a reason for what they do, and I try not to force my hand on them too much...

justgojumpit

[BoBn]

> Deep combs drawn out in the bottom box always are chewed away above the bottom bar.

This doesn't happen if you use a slatted rack.
I make slatted racks like this except only 3/4" deep:
http://www.beesource.com/plans/bottomrack.htm

I am now building it into my screened bottom boards so that the bottom boards are all one unit.


-Bob

[FJA]

>

I meant that the best deep comb were drawn out in honey supers rather than by a swarm or above a brood nest. Deep combs drawn out in the bottom box always are chewed away above the bottom bar.

odfrank, just wondering if you use, mostly deep frames, for honey supers ?

[odfrank]

I use medium depth boxes for my honey crop but every year also draw out 9 1/8" and 11 1/4" deep frames on the honey flow. You should hear my two buddies complain when we have to hoist down those couple of 11 5/8" deep boxes down from the top of a big stack of honey on a hive.
I have used slatted racks for 30 years, they do not completely solve the chewing out problem.