Filling a super

[LJH]

Roughly at this time of year with the nice weather, how long would you expect a strong colony to take to fill a national super? How many litres roughly in one full ten framed national super? What time of year do you extract, how often?

Please don't say how long is a piece of string or similar, I'm just looking for a rough estimate based on your own experiences. I know there are too many things to factor in for accurate answers. I'm in the north west, don't know what they're foraging on.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Beefriendly]

Mine are filling more than super a week at the moment,one has filled three since last week when I put three empty supers on them. I'm now clearing them. (One capped, one partially capped and other is close).
These are large colonies on double brood.

 

[Finman]

Roughly at this time of year with the nice weather, how long would you expect a strong colony to take to fill a national super? How many litres roughly in one full ten framed national super? What time of year do you extract, how often?

Please don't say how long is a piece of string or similar, I'm just looking for a rough estimate based on your own experiences. I know there are too many things to factor in for accurate answers. I'm in the north west, don't know what they're foraging on.

Thank you in advance.

Normally all depends on pastures around you and how much other's hives forage same pastures.

You should inspect your swarming/swarm cells every week. And at same you see, how they cap honey and how much they free space to nectar. Normally one capped box needs 2 boxes for nectar.

You should look too, how much they store honey into brood box. IT tells, do you have enough store space above excluder.


You cannot get answers to these from other beekeepers. Open the hive an inspect.

.
.

 

[Finman]

Mine are filling more than super a week at the moment,one has filled three since last week when I put three empty supers on them. I'm now clearing them. (One capped, one partially capped and other is close).
These are large colonies on double brood.

Good speed.... 120- 160 lbs in a month per hive.
What are flowers?

 

[Poly Hive]

I've seen one filled and capped in 5 days.

No idea about litres as they are calculated in pounds. A good Nat super is 35 to 40 lbs ish. The normal average for the UK taken over 10 years is 40 lbs. This year some have it pouring in but last year was very poor and so the longer average is the best guide.

As to how often? In the laps of the weather gods.

And if you think you can get away with one super you need to upgrade the thinking as 3 are required.

PH

 

[Beefriendly]

Good speed.... 60-80 kg in a month per hive.
What are flowers?

Clover, bramble, Fire weed, Chestnut, lime and god knows what else.
Never known a year like this...but then we have never had a summer like this since I started beekeeping.
It will be interesting to see how the later yields from borage and heather compare....I think this drought will be detrimental to the crop. We shall see.

 

[Stiffy]

Most of mine are filling a super a week, several are filling a super in 3-4 days. Starting to run out of boxes, so may need to start extracting soon.
Happy days
S

 

[Millet]

I've seen one filled and capped in 5 days.

No idea about litres as they are calculated in pounds. A good Nat super is 35 to 40 lbs ish. The normal average for the UK taken over 10 years is 40 lbs. This year some have it pouring in but last year was very poor and so the longer average is the best guide.

As to how often? In the laps of the weather gods.

And if you think you can get away with one super you need to upgrade the thinking as 3 are required.

PH

One of my colonies has been filling just under 1.5 supers per week in this current warm weather, they have 11 SN4 frames in each standard national super, the bees are totally filling all the supers and the average weight is 23lb and they could not fit another drop of honey in them, how do you get 35/40lb of honey in the supers ? ... do you use less than eleven frames in your supers to reduce the amount of wasted bee space in between frames..

 

[Zante]

Mine are now filling their third super of the year, but they came out of winter limping, lost a queen and missed the acacia flow due to bad weather. On top of that they had wax to draw, as the combs were damaged.
Oh well... I'm not selling it, so even with only a couple of supers I'll be sorted.

 

[dsp]

a decent hive of mine will bring in about 1 super a week on a good flow, perhaps another week to be fully capped. i dont get 40ib in a super tho. more like 25-30ib. i think 3.5 ib is about 1 liter. so i'd say, at a guess, about 8l per super for me.

 

[LJH]

Thanks all, some helpful info there.

 

[Beefriendly]

and the average weight is 23lb and they could not fit another drop of honey in them, how do you get 35/40lb of honey in the supers ? .

between 20 to 25lb is about right on...I'm using 10 spacing and occasionally 11 not really noticed much difference apart from less work. Occasionally had 30lbs when every single frames was capped and bulging using Manleys on 10 spacing on the Heather
PH is possibly not using National Supers? Langstroth supers would hold that amount.

 

[simonforeman]

How long have you been beekeeping Beefriendly?

Lots of people keep saying not seen a year like it...

I thought my first year was going to be really rough with the beast from the east but my hive that I have eventually requeened is on 3 supers and they were all foundation at the start and the 3rd is fully drawn and being filled, may need another yet. At least I will have drawn super comb for next year.

 

[Millet]

between 20 to 25lb is about right on...I'm using 10 spacing and occasionally 11 not really noticed much difference apart from less work. Occasionally had 30lbs when every single frames was capped and bulging using Manleys on 10 spacing on the Heather
PH is possibly not using National Supers? Langstroth supers would hold that amount.

PH mentions Nat supers... is that short for Langstroth

 

[Beefriendly]

PH mentions Nat supers... is that short for Langstroth

Gareth Southgate would say he really meant Langstroth but mistyped due to mental confusion in this heat wave...and would then pop round to his house with some cool water and provide a comforting shoulder to cry on.
Nice guy.
Gareth I mean...

 

[Into the lions den]

One of my colonies has been filling just under 1.5 supers per week in this current warm weather, they have 11 SN4 frames in each standard national super, the bees are totally filling all the supers and the average weight is 23lb and they could not fit another drop of honey in them, how do you get 35/40lb of honey in the supers ? ... do you use less than eleven frames in your supers to reduce the amount of wasted bee space in between frames..

You are spot on....some of the weights of supers and deeps are just lore.

A stack of BS supers, well filled, averages about 22lb extracted yield.

As for deeps with 56 to 75lb? A stack of well filled ones averages about 35lb harvested weight.

75l to 85lb in a full Lang deep? Well we do our cut comb in those and a FULL deep, sealed wall to wall (you don't get many like that) gives 140 pieces at 200g each. About 200g of offcuts too. 28.2 Kg or about 62lb, and that includes all the wax and clingage that you would not have as harvested honey post extracting.

The volume of the boxes....working to the same spacing.....has a BS shallow at about 51% of a Lang deep...........so a stuffed BS shallow going for cut comb with zero wastage (but inc offcuts) is not likely to yield over 33lb. Once you extract it and allow for the weight of wax and clingage it is plain that the figures bandied about.........some of them published........are just fanciful.

 

[Millet]

Thank's for that Lion Man..

 

[boywonder]

You are spot on....some of the weights of supers and deeps are just lore.

A stack of BS supers, well filled, averages about 22lb extracted yield.

.

Does this not depend on how you run your frames, maybe ? If, say, you had SN4 Hoffman on runners (not that I imagine many or any do that), or whatever, you might have 11 or 12 frames, but filled more shallowly, and proportionately more wax in the box than honey.... The reason I speculate is that, in the last 5 years, with 10 full, capped frames on castellations, I have consistently ... and I mean absolutely consistently ... extracted 14kg per BS super - i.e. 30lb. I cannot see how a 22lb AVG comes about, unless supers are not full, uncapping/extraction is inefficient, or frames are being run differently. At a average of 22, that is a huge difference. I would be interested in the insights of those with more wisdom.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Roughly at this time of year with the nice weather, how long would you expect a strong colony to take to fill a national super?

At the moment ? - four to five days had some colonies around here fill two in six

How many litres roughly in one full ten framed national super?

No idea - last time I had bees fill them as they are now I had 32 pounds out of one (out of curiosity I weighed the frames before and after extracting - also allowing for the cappings)

What time of year do you extract, how often?

summertime, and often

 

[LJH]

Some great info there thanks a lot for that, really useful.