Tom, your father probably did use the deeps but that box ends up weighing a lot. You can get eight deeps in the spinner but it's tricky to get them in.
Most people put at least two mediums (6 5/8) on and often three sometimes four. It's just easier to lift and the extractor does 20 at a time.
I bought the 6 5/8 from the farm store. Just seems to me that my dad and I used the feeps as well for supers when I was a kid. The 6 5/8 just seem so small to me. Maybe I'm honey greedy
One big advantage of your size of frames is that when it comes time to extract honey you will be able to do 3x as many at a time.
I used deep boxes last year and the extractor only holds 4 at a time.
A medium super is 6 5/8” deep, and the shallow super is 5 3/4” in depth.
The shallow ones are only 4 3/4” deep
I’d say keep what you’ve got. I’m switching to the medium supers myself
Tom
there are two sizes of honey supers
medium for which the frames are 6 5/8 inches
shallow for which the frames are 5 3/4 inches
medium is what we all use and what you can purchase at the farm store
shallows work fine, but are harder to obtain
What size box do you all suggest for the honey supers? I have the small 10 frame boxes that are only 6" deep but I feel like these are just to small.
You’re right about the bottom box Claire, it was vacant early in the spring. I removed it, placed the top box on the bottom, and I’ve added two more brood boxes altogether. Its very well populated, although I haven’t done an actual inspection, but just looking down thru the frames it appears very full and active.
I’m afraid that it’s probably going to swarm, but I’m going to take my chances I guess, for now anyway. For now I’ve placed two medium honey supers on top of the 3 brood boxes. I’m planning on letting the colony draw out the frames for a week or two and then I’ll probably add the queen excluder.
Definitely supers, two would be good for such a large colony. If the queen is laying in the top box I would use a queen excluder. Otherwise I wouldn't.
I have to ask you a question. Have you been into the bottom box this year? They move up during the winter and the bottom box is often empty. Normally we move the active frames down to the bottom box and let them work their way up again. The reason I ask is three deep boxes full of bees ought to be enough for them to swarm unless they are eight frame boxes.
Congratulations on a job well done!
If you decide to do a split, I have an extra queen you can have.
My overwintered hive consists of 3 deep brood boxes which, as I discovered today, are all very full of bees. The top box has a lot of stored honey. They need more room right away. Should I give them another brood box? Is it too early for a honey super?