How many supers?

[bsquad]

I'm buying 3 hive splits from a local beekeeper soon, and trying to make sure I'm all set when they arrive. I'll be using all medium 10-frame equipment. How many supers should I expect to need the first year? I'll be in the Twin Cities area, using 3 mediums as a brood box.

Thanks!

[EastSideBuzz]

I would think 2 would be good first year. I use deeps and have 1 deep and one western per hive.

[Michael Bush]

The problem is it could vary by more than 200%. I' m assuming you're already talking about 3 for he brood and you're just asking about boxes above that. You may need as few as 1 or 2 or as many as 5 of 6. It's always better to have too many than too few and the beekeeping places are backlogged because it's that time of year...

[bsquad]

I' m assuming you're already talking about 3 for he brood and you're just asking about boxes above that.

Yes, exactly.

If it did grow to as high as 5 or 6, I would be able to extract one at a time, and really just keep 1-3 on the hive, right?

[Andrew Dewey]

Certainly.