Why do Beeks stack supers so high?
1 - 20 of 40 Posts
Joined
·
13,112 Posts
If the honey is coming in fast they may want to put plenty of boxes on to make sure they don't miss any of it.
Human nature being what it is even for beekeepers, people like to show off their success and those photos are the ones they will like to put on the net.
And then for a certain breed of beekeeper, proving that "mine is bigger than yours" is important to them.
Human nature being what it is even for beekeepers, people like to show off their success and those photos are the ones they will like to put on the net.
And then for a certain breed of beekeeper, proving that "mine is bigger than yours" is important to them.
I don’t own an extractor so I have to use the states, which usually has a wait time to get. So for me I just harvest all at once. When I know how much I need to keep for growing hives that were to late to build surplus I get my name on the list for the extractor and harvest the evening before picking it up.
Burley, I have built some tall stacks before to make sure I don't miss some flow, and waiting to see if they'd cap the honey. I am not sure why my bees seem to take their old sweet time capping honey sometimes. This year I finally disregarded the need to have honey capped and harvested when the super was packed pretty full. I do wait though till there's a good amount to make it worth while to get everything out and clean it back up. To assure low moisture level, this year I would put 8 to 12 full supers in my back porch and run the dehumidifier in there for 2 days. Nice dry honey that way and no need to wait till everything is capped. That helped. It's kind of fun to pull a bunch of full stacked supers all capped and ready though.
I wouldn't automatically call it bragging when someone posts a tall stack of supers. Maybe they are sharing the blessing and joy they received with us.
I wouldn't automatically call it bragging when someone posts a tall stack of supers. Maybe they are sharing the blessing and joy they received with us.
Joined
·
13,112 Posts
Agreed, perhaps my first post came off a little harsh. I have been guilty of the odd bit of bragging myself ha ha, nothing wrong with "sharing the blessing and joy".I wouldn't automatically call it bragging when someone posts a tall stack of supers. Maybe they are sharing the blessing and joy they received with us.
Joined
·
2,298 Posts
That or their is still a lot of uncap honey. And they are letting them dry it down. When their is a flow on it’s better almost to have to many boxes on.
I wasn't thinking you were harsh since there's surely some bragging going on sometimes. When I see a picture of a big stack and wonder how many are empty. I hope that isn't a product of envy.Agreed, perhaps my first post came off a little harsh. I have been guilty of the odd bit of bragging myself ha ha, nothing wrong with "sharing the blessing and joy".
Always somethin'
You do want to catch the flow, so more is better to a point. In my case, if I were to put 5 medium supers on a hive in April, I'd be taking three totally empty supers back off at the end of June when the flow was over. Just the way it is.
Joined
·
1,753 Posts
Just to make neighbor beekeepers jealous.
Love all the replies. I didn’t think of the waiting on honey to cap part. I’m only in my 2nd year, do if more than 1 super is full and capped, it’s gettting robbed. I’m sure things will change as I pro, but I’ll be pretty pumped to have any at all this year.
Joined
·
10,224 Posts
With some hive designs you must go high, so to capture as much nectar as possible.
This includes small vertical hive designs, as an example.
There is nothing to brag about - it is a part of the actual methodology.
Keep in mind - nectar is 90-95% water by weight - it takes LOTs of space to put the nectar away INITIALLY.
The ready honey is ~18-20% water - the initial nectar volume will shrink by that much before becoming honey.
So, this is why you need sufficient amount of temporary storage to capture the nectar before it is dried into honey.
No temp storage for nectar intake and drying it - not as much honey in the end.
This includes small vertical hive designs, as an example.
There is nothing to brag about - it is a part of the actual methodology.
Keep in mind - nectar is 90-95% water by weight - it takes LOTs of space to put the nectar away INITIALLY.
The ready honey is ~18-20% water - the initial nectar volume will shrink by that much before becoming honey.
So, this is why you need sufficient amount of temporary storage to capture the nectar before it is dried into honey.
No temp storage for nectar intake and drying it - not as much honey in the end.
Joined
·
10,224 Posts
I borrow an extractor once a year from the local bee club (I had 4 hives this year) so trying to extract multiple times is a lot more work and harder to coordinate
In this hive when I pulled the top 4 boxes to extract, 35ish of the 40 frames were capped and I extracted them. I leave 3-4 boxes for winter, and I left 4 on this hive going into winter.
![Roof Bee Insect Membrane-winged insect Outdoor structure]()
In this hive when I pulled the top 4 boxes to extract, 35ish of the 40 frames were capped and I extracted them. I leave 3-4 boxes for winter, and I left 4 on this hive going into winter.
To me, the worst part of extracting is setting up my “clean” area and then breaking down and cleaning at the end. Uncapping and spinning 300 frames is the part of the process that I dream about all winter. So I want to extract in as few sessions as possible. For this reason, I will “store” my full supers above the empty supers that I continue to place on the brood nest. Unfortunately, I can only get 3, maybe some hives 4 supers filled. But if I ever had that ten super skyscraper, you can rest assured I would find a way to post it in my signature on this board.
I have never had a hive stacked beyond 7 mediums but I still would not harvest even if I reach 10 medium tall hive. Simply because I am lazy and I want to harvest just once and be done with it. In fact I harvested early this year because I was out of honey to sell. Later some of the strong hives put up some more honey than they need and I still left them alone i.e. didn't extract. Mental note: Need to watch those hives with excess stores for swarming.
Joined
·
2,053 Posts
Because my production colonies are ripped at the right time of the year and produce multiple deeps of honey on a good year. They also have to produce enough to go thru our summer dearth period. Adding alot of combs on big colonies can help retard swarming also. We don't go past 5 deeps tall these days. I have a few that could fill 6 deeps but I am to short for that haha. I don't have time to make multiple trip when harvesting honey. Let em filler up and then do it all at once.
After adding box 8 (1 deep + 7 medium) this summer I decided I was not going to add any more to the hive in the picture above. I did not want to get a ladder to work it, and I could barley push the brick onto the top to keep the lid from blowing off.
1 - 20 of 40 Posts
Join the discussion
