A single deep box is often sufficient for bees in Southern climates. The amount of brood boxes may also depend on your location. Our deep supers can come either assembled or unassembled and in different grades of wood. This grade of wood is perfect for the beekeeper on the budget that is just starting out. Tight knots can be found throughout the super made out of Ponderosa pine.Įconomy -grade wood has the same specifications as commercial-grade but is of lower quality. Select -grade wood is a high quality wood that only has small tight knots and no changes in the joints or rabbets.Ĭommercial -grade wood is the most popular choice by beekeepers. Dadant offers them painted and assembled as well as unassembled supers in a variety of wood grades. Most of our supers are made from durable Ponderosa pine, and each board has been moisture-metered before cutting to assure proper moisture content and prevent warping. These additional frames will also increase the amount of work needed to extract honey during the harvest. However, using all medium supers will require you to use more supplies and inspect more frames overall. ![]() Some beekeepers may use two medium supers in place of a single deep. The best advantage of using a medium super is that it is about two-thirds lighter than a full deep super. A medium super is known as a brood box is often called a Western, or Illinois Super. However, this super will be heavier than a medium super when full. Medium Superīecause it is larger than a medium super, a deep super will hold more resources for bees. Medium supers can be used as a brood chamber and honey super. Shallow supers are most commonly used as a honey super. ![]() A shallow super is 5 11/16” deep.ĭeep supers are most often used as the “hive body,” where the queen lays her eggs and raises brood. There are three types of supers that beekeepers use: deep, medium, and shallow. In simple terms, brood production occurs at the bottom of the hive, whereas bees make and store honey at the top. * During the swarms’ constitution, we systematically distribute a little quantity of diluted syrup, right after the royal cells’ insertion.The basic configuration of a Langstroth hive was created with bees’ natural instincts in mind. This is the reason why we often have to counterbalance the reserves’ insufficiencies. In fact, the colonies expand quickly at this time and the nectar incomes are poor if the weather is bad. * The second half of March is a critical period for us. We feed the small hives during fall: generally we need 2 to 3 kg of syrup for all the colonies and twice the quantity for the smallest swarms. The feeding of the hives represents a major step for our production.* Winter: 1 treatment of oxalic acid by drops + pieces of cardboard soaked with amitraz, out of the brood. The treatments start as soon as we begin the honey chambers’ crop (before the winter laying) Summer: 2 treatments of oxalic acid by drops + pieces of cardboard soaked with amitraz.The small hives’ behaviour: Anti-varroa treatments: The best one filled 7 honey chambers, which represents 55 kg of honey. In 2010, the average production of a colony was of 3 honey chamber (25 kg of honey). * the other part of the bee population is used for the production of honey in 5-frame honey chamber and also for the elite strains’ testing. * a part of the hives’ population is dedicated to the pollination of semen productions, In parallel, the less time dedicated at the second set of swarms lets us more time for the development of more nuclei and for the sale of fertilized queens. Since 2013, we are more focussed on our honey production than on our sales of swarms of the year. * the rest of the colony (spring queen + 3 brood frames and honey + the foragers) were sold in swarms of the year. we were starting a new swarm with a 11 day old royal cell able to overwinter at the end of the season,.At the end of May-beginning of June, we were removing 2 or 3 opened frames from each colony. Until 2012, we were producing a second set of swarms just before the sweet chestnut’s blossoms. We will find them on 6 frames one month and a half later. ![]() ![]() It is on the colza blossoms that the new swarms are getting developed. The rest of the colony (overwintered queen + 3 brood frames and honey + the foragers) is sold on the market- in overwintered swarms. We actually own more than a 1000 and overwinter more than 800 yearly.Įnd of March-beginning of April, while the colonies are on 5 or 6 frames, we remove 2 or 3 open frames to start a swarm in a new hive. The 6-frame bee hives represent the main element of our production.
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