Super is short for superstructure, which refers to the boxes placed on a beehive for bees to store honey. Historically, a super was always a medium, 6 5/8-inch tall box, or a shallow 5 3/4-inch tall box. Both are traditionally referred to as supers, exclusive of the deep 9 5/8-inch box used on the bottom of the hive.

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What are supers in a bee hive?

Beekeepers define a super as “any upper-story hive box placed over the brood chamber for purpose of storing surplus honey.” When you look up “honey super,” Wikipedia informs us, “A honey super is a part of a commercial or other managed (such as by a hobbyist) beehive that is used to collect honey.” So, the verb “ …

When should you add a honey super?

The ideal time to add a super is during periods of natural population growth (typically, the spring), before or during a honey flow (spring or summer), or during periods of swarming (again, typically the spring). Before adding a super, beekeepers often use a standard rule of thumb, which is known as the 7/10 rule.

What's the difference between a brood box and a super?

A brood box is the box that’s used to house both the queen and the brood. It typically sits on the bottom of the hive and forms the base of the structure. A super, on the other hand, usually contains just honey (though it can contain brood as well if a queen excluder is not used).

How many supers does a beehive have?

A single hive can have at least 2-3 supers. When your first honey super is about ⅔ full of honey, add another super on top of it. Repeat this process until you’re ready to remove a super.

How many deep supers are there?

Deep Super – This is a large size hive box. Each super holds 10 frames inside it that the bees build wax onto. Some people use an 8 frame hive box which would require 8 frames per super. For the setup described here, you need 2 Deep Supers with 10 frames each to house the brood chamber.

What is the difference between a hive body and a super?

The difference between a “brood box” and a “super” is brood boxes are used by the queen to lay eggs called brood for raising new bees. A “super” is the hive box used to store a bee’s honey called a “honey super”. Also, “super” is a common term used to describe the actual hive body or beehive box.

Do I need 2 brood boxes?

How many brood boxes should you have? The general consensus in most regions of the world is to use either one or two brood boxes. Using three or more means that you are probably doing your bees a disservice. In this case you would be better off splitting the large hive so you can get back to one or two brood boxes.

Is honey stored in the brood box?

The bees usually store a layer of pollen around the brood nest, and above the pollen–and perhaps to the side of it–they store honey. Drone brood is often found along the bottom or the sides of the worker brood.

Can I take honey from brood box?

Pollen, the protein bees consume to survive, is generally stored near the brood. … Beekeepers can then harvest honey from only the supers, leaving honey in the brood boxes for the bees to use in winter. Expanding the space in this way also challenges the bees and might help prevent a swarm.

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Can you put a honey super on too early?

When to Add a Second Honey Super If you are in doubt, it is often best to add a bit early rather than too late. This rule is in reference to beekeepers that are adding additional boxes for honey harvest. Adding honey supers allows room for ample honey collection and eases crowding inside the hive.

How many frames is a honey super?

A honey super consists of a box in which 8–10 frames are hung. Western honeybees collect nectar and store the processed nectar in honeycomb, which they build on the frames. When the honeycomb is full, the bees will reduce the moisture content of the honey to 17-18% moisture content before capping the comb with beeswax.

Can you feed bees with supers on?

To clarify, a beekeeper should never feed sugar syrup to bees when they have a honey super in place. Never. As I said in an earlier post, sugar syrup is a short-term answer for bees that have a food shortage. … A weak colony should not be given a honey super in the first place.

How long does it take for bees to clean a super?

If you don’t want to make multiple trips, I would say 1 super can be cleaned by 1 strong hive in 2-3 hours – more or less. I just put my frames in front of my hives 3-4 hours before dark. After an hour or so of darkness, I put them in a chest freezer for 24-48 hours. Done.

Can you eat a honeycomb?

And yes, the comb is totally safe to eat. People have been keeping bees — and eating the honeycomb — for several thousand years. … The comb itself — a network of hexagonal cylinders — is made from waxy secretions of worker bees. As these cylinders are filled with honey, they are capped with yet another layer of wax.

How do you add super to a beehive?

When the bee colony reaches a point when a 10 frame hive reaches 8 frames full of bees, that is when you will add another super. Use the 80% rule in adding each super. After the second super is full drawn out of comb, that is when you can end supplemental sugar water feeding.

What is a honey deep?

Deep (9-⅝ in) Medium (6-⅝ in) Shallow (5-¾ in)

What are bee boxes called?

A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus Apis live and raise their young. Though the word beehive is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature distinguishes nest from hive.

Is Honeycomb a wax?

A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal prismatic wax cells built by honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. … If the honeycomb is too worn out, the wax can be reused in a number of ways, including making sheets of comb foundation with hexagonal pattern.

What does the queen bee do?

HONEY BEE QUEEN’S ROLE IN THE COLONY The Queen Bee plays a vital role in the hive because she is the only female with fully developed ovaries. The queen’s two primary purposes are to produce chemical scents that help regulate the unity of the colony and to lay lots of eggs.

Do you need a queen excluder?

The usual purpose of a queen excluder is to keep the queen from laying eggs in the honey supers. Until your bees draw out most of the frames in the brood boxes, you have no use for honey supers and, therefore, no use for a queen excluder. … So before using an excluder, always make sure it is in good shape.

Do you leave supers on over winter?

Yes, you can leave a honey super or several on the hive over Winter. In fact, most beekeepers do have a super or two designated for use by the bees.

Can humans eat royal jelly?

When taken by mouth: Royal jelly is POSSIBLY SAFE for most people when taken at appropriate doses. Doses up to 4.8 grams per day for up to 1 year have been used safely. In people with asthma or allergies, royal jelly might cause serious allergic reactions.

How do you tell if a hive is honey bound?

If there is a large nectar flow, worker bees will store the nectar in the brood nest cells, which then gets converted to honey. If there is a larger percentage of cells filled with pollen or nectar than brood, the hive may be honey bound.

Can you use a super as a brood box?

The only difference is that a brood box is used for brood expansion/growth and a super is for honey. They can all be the same size or different sizes. Many people use deep (9 5/8″) boxes for brood and medium boxes (6 5/8″) for supers. Some use all deeps, some use all mediums.

What is drawn comb?

Drawn comb is a sheet of beeswax foundation whose cells have been drawn out into three-dimensional hexagonal cells using beeswax manufactured by the bees. Drawn comb has several purposes. It is used by bees to either store honey or pollen, as insulation and a place for bees to cluster.

How many hives can one person manage?

One person can manage between 100 to 150 hives while still working a full-time job. As a full-time beekeeper one person can manage between 500 to 800 bee colonies but would still require seasonal workers to assist with the honey harvest.

Can you eat brood Honeycomb?

If you’re accustomed to eating comb honey then you may also enjoy eating brood honeycomb. … Indeed in some parts of the world this dark comb honey is prized more than other types of honey. The build up of pollen etc., from the brood rearing process is said to impart additional beneficial enzymes.

What is backfilling in hive?

The meaning is only slightly different in beekeeping, but different enough to be confusing. In beekeeping, backfilling refers to filling an empty brood cell with honey or sometimes pollen. In other words, a cell that previously held one or more generations of developing bees, is now used to store food.

Is brood honey edible?

Honey bee brood — the larvae and pupae of drones — has great potential as a food source. It is already eaten as a delicacy in many countries, including Mexico, Thailand and Australia. It has a nutty flavor with a crunchy texture when eaten cooked or dried, and is a versatile ingredient used in soups and egg dishes.

Will an empty beehive attract bees?

Yes, an empty beehive will attract bees. Even if it isn’t positioned up in a tree or converted to a bait hive, the scout bees can smell residual beeswax in the wood. If you have an empty hive and want to make it more attractive to bees, you can add a swarm lure.