[Chief11885]

I am in my second year and I am wondering how many super to run for winter. Last year I ran a deep and one medium with a candy board. So would having two mediums be to much room?

 

[Biermann]

I am in my second year and I am wondering how many super to run for winter. Last year I ran a deep and one medium with a candy board. So would having two mediums be to much room?

Do you still have supers on in winter? Any honey production?

Or, are you talking about brood boxes?

If so, your configuration of one deep & one medium should be just fine if full with stores and room for bees.

I never understand why one would have different size boxes & frames, just complicates life. Use all the same and perhaps 3xsmall or medium, it can't heart anything.

 

[Chief11885]

I am running a deep for brood box and mediums for honey harvest and over wintering. I just dont want to have to much room for winter. I know some people run 2 deeps. 1 brood and 1 for honey stores.

 

[elmer_fud]

What part of Kansas are you in.

I am near Ft Collins, Colorado, and if you are in the north east part of Kansas this is probably sort of relevant.

I typically run a deep on the bottom for the brood nest and stack mediums on top of that. I try to go into winter with 2-3 mediums full of honey/syrup. I have seen a smaller hive consume as little as 30 lbs of stores during the winter, and a big one consume 65+ lbs. I would rather go into winter with to much stores if the hive is in good shape (strength and mite load)

 

[Robert Holcombe]

Biermann "I never understand why one would have different size boxes & frames, just complicates life"-------- I thought the same thing once.. I used "intuition" to define my standard Langstroth brood chamber, summer and winter, as a Medium + Deep + Medium. Also part of the reason was I had the hardware but could cut it down or build up to a size.

My observations after two years with my standard brood chamber; 1) intuition still tells me the nurse bees and queen like big frames or larger brood areas, 2) makes it easy to move honey frames down to the top medium box, a little harder to the lower medium box. The main brood chamber stays centerd in the Deep and stay "light". 3) I have no reason to change, so it seems.

I can easily store 80 lb. of honey plus bees and brood space in this configuration. The bottom medium is mostly used as a transition area or as a brood area, if needed. The upper medium has remained the honey band with some brood on the central frames. I still like the idea but I also heavily insulate, all year now.