How Much Honey Per Frame?

When we start planning our beekeeping business or season, we often get tempted to predict the output. How much honey per frame? This is a rather variable figure and depends on management style and bees. To help you with your planning let us delve into this a bit.

How Much Honey Can We Expect Per Frame?

We basically have two types of frames for which this is important to answer the question in a Langstroth hive. A deep and a shallow frame. Some people use mediums, but we will not go into how much honey in a 10 frame medium super. A deep frame is the largest frame we use in a Langstroth hive and a shallow frame is the smallest. Typically there are ten of either frame type in the corresponding box designed for that frame.

We would normally place the 10 frames in a box using foundation wax to center the bees, who will then draw and fill the frames according to their rules of bee space. We can then use a very clever trick – if we remove these frames, spin the honey out and return the frames, we can put either 8 or 9 frames in a box and space them correctly and the bees will draw these out a bit deeper according to their rules of bee space.

What this means is that we can get way thicker frames and have fewer frames in a super. Because the cells are really deep, laying workers or queens that sneak up into the supers will not get any stupid ideas about laying brood in the supers. This makes for a lot more honey per super, and a lot less work per super.

This also makes the “How much honey per frame?” question a bit more complicated to answer than you may have thought.

How Much Honey can come from a Deep Super Frame?

Deep frame weight when spaced 10 to a box and filled with honey – 7.5 lb plus or minus half a pound.

Deep frame weight when spaced 9 to a box and capped with honey – 8 lb plus or minus half a pound.

Deep frame weight when spaced 8 to a box and capped with honey – 9.5lb plus or minus a half a pound.

These are very rough estimates as we say – bees do their own thing – different races have different levels they dry honey down to, influencing the density of honey. Different flowers produce nectar with different moisture levels and some of these allow the bees to get even more density into a unit of area. But the above is pretty accurate rough figures for you to work with.

How Much Honey can come from a Shallow Super Frame?

With a shallow superframe, the actual volume of honey per frame is a lot less. But we see a similar improvement in volumetric efficiency with decreased numbers of frames per super.

10 frame spaced shallow super – work on about 3 lb honey a frame.

9 from spaced shallow super – work on about 3.5 lb honey a frame.

8 frame spaced shallow super – work on 4 lb honey a frame.

So now we have roughly covered the question of “how much honey per frame?” by looking at the pounds of honey per frame. This leads us to a few important facts about this and a couple of cautions around removing honey from your bees. Too many over-zealous beekeepers have excessively removed honey from their Flow Hives which has caused starvation for the bees during winter. Find out how to prevent this using some basic knowledge.

How Much Honey Can One Hive Produce?

This depends on a lot of factors! It will depend on the race of bees, where you are keeping them, and what the available forage is. It will also depend on if you migrate the bees, or leave them in one site per year, and how much time and feed you put into managing the hive.

An important factor to remember as well is that the photoperiod during a honey flow influences overall peak production. If you are in Saskatchewan and working buckwheat and wildflowers and the sun comes up at 4 am and sets at 9 pm, your bees will be able to produce a huge amount of honey if you have managed your population of bees right and are using a good bee strain adapted to the area.

I have seen places where people get as little as 20lb honey per hive per year, and other places where the average can be 10 or more times that. There have been beekeepers who have produced so much honey that their hives actually collapsed under the weight of the supers.

Ask around in your area to find out what the amount of honey beekeepers get on average from their hives is. Remember that beekeepers are a bit like fishermen and guys on tinder – they exaggerate the sizes of things ever so slightly to quite extensively. So listen to the “amount of honey old-timer beekeepers got in the good old days” and just remember that was probably one hive out of a thousand that produced 400lb in a season. The others were maybe 60-80lb or something like that.

How Much Honey Will Bees Consume In Winter?

This really depends on your climatic zone. There are places in the world, for instance in the southern US where bees can actually produce honey in winter. In more northern climates bees will shut down for the winter and form a cluster and consume honey.

You will typically find that a local beekeeping extension officer or beekeeping association should have some pretty good rule of thumb weights of a hive needed to ensure a relatively decent hive survival rate for winter. Typically you would want the bees to have at least one deep box with 10 frames of stored honey (70-80lb or so) but I will not write down an actual number here because it varies so much from area to area. But it is very important that if you do overwinter your bees that you install some sort of dry sugar feeder system. This will both help to provide a bit of sugar for the bees and remove moisture from the hive atmosphere.

I hope this has helped you figure out how much honey per frame you can expect. Beekeeping is a lot of fun and has some rules, which the bees will break. If you enjoyed this article, please share!

Read more about: How Much Honey Does A Bee Hive Produce?

FAQs

How much honey can I expect from a deep frame in a Langstroth hive?

• Answer: In a Langstroth hive, a deep frame filled with honey typically weighs around 7.5 pounds when spaced 10 frames per box. If you reduce the number of frames to 9, you can expect each frame to hold about 8 pounds. With 8 frames per box, the weight increases to approximately 9.5 pounds per frame. Keep in mind that these are rough estimates and can vary based on bee behavior and nectar sources.

How much honey can I expect from a shallow frame in a Langstroth hive?

• Answer: A shallow frame in a Langstroth hive usually holds less honey than a deep frame. With 10 frames per box, you can expect around 3 pounds of honey per frame. If you space 9 frames, the weight increases to 3.5 pounds per frame, and with 8 frames, each can hold up to 4 pounds of honey.

What factors affect the amount of honey per frame?

• Answer: The amount of honey per frame depends on several factors, including the type of frame (deep or shallow), the spacing between frames, the race of bees, the available forage, and environmental conditions like temperature and humidity. Additionally, different nectar sources can affect the density of honey, which impacts the overall weight.

Can I increase honey production by adjusting frame spacing?

• Answer: Yes, adjusting the spacing between frames can increase honey production. By reducing the number of frames in a box (from 10 to 8 or 9), bees will draw out deeper comb, allowing each frame to hold more honey. This practice can lead to more honey per frame, although it requires careful management to avoid brood being laid in honey supers.

How much honey can one hive produce in a season?

• Answer: The amount of honey a hive can produce in a season varies greatly depending on factors like bee race, location, forage availability, and management practices. Some hives may produce as little as 20 pounds per season, while others, under optimal conditions, can yield over 200 pounds. Local conditions and beekeeping experience also play a significant role.

How much honey will my bees consume during winter?

• Answer: Bees typically consume between 60 to 80 pounds of honey during winter, depending on the climate and length of the winter season. In milder climates, bees may require less, while in colder regions, they may need more to survive until spring. It’s essential to ensure your hive has enough stored honey to last through the winter months.

Should I remove all the honey from my hive before winter?

• Answer: No, you should never remove all the honey from your hive before winter. Bees need a substantial amount of honey to survive the winter. It’s recommended to leave at least one deep box full of honey, which is roughly 70-80 pounds. In colder climates, supplementing with a dry sugar feeder can also help.

Can I estimate honey production before the season starts?

• Answer: Estimating honey production before the season can be challenging due to the many variables involved. However, understanding your local conditions, bee race, and available forage can help you make a rough estimate. It’s always wise to be conservative in your estimates and prepare for variations in production year to year.