When To Add Supers To Beehives?

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Often as beekeepers, we ask the question: When to add supers to beehives? Adding supers to beehives is not as straightforward as it may seem. A beehive super is best added when conditions are right.

This is quite simple. You start your hive with the brood box. The thing that fits on top of the brood box structure, is above, or super, hence it is the superstructure box.

What Is A Beehive Super?

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We add a super, or multiple supers, to give the bees space to store honey. The logic is that as the beehive fills up with bees, they will develop a bigger and bigger workforce. This workforce can travel to more flowers and produce more honey.

When To Add Supers To Beehives

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Why Do We Add Supers To Beehives?

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When you start a new hive, my general advice is to be a little more gentle with these bees. Super slightly more slowly, and inspect your hives carefully. If you started a new hive from a package, or a split and the frames in the brood box are not completely drawn, supering a hive may slow the whole process down.

When To Add A Honey Super To A New Hive?

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Foundationless beekeeping provides a unique challenge, as you are supering hives when there is less for the bees to climb up in the supers. 

When To Add A Honey Super To A Hive With Foundationless Beekeeping?.

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ADVICE

Beeswax melts at nearly twice the optimal body temperature of a bee. This is possible because the bees take two broad families of compounds that melt at approximately their optimal temperature, and react them together, to make a family of compounds that melt at twice their body temperature.

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