In beekeeping, a honey super is a box placed on top of a beehive specifically for the collection of surplus honey. It is essentially the hive’s pantry, designed to hold frames where bees will store honey that the beekeeper can later harvest without disturbing the main colony or taking the food stores the bees need to survive the winter.
The core concept to understand is separation. A honey super separates the queen and her brood-rearing activity from the area where surplus honey is stored, ensuring a clean and efficient harvest for the beekeeper.
The Role of the Honey Super in Hive Architecture
To understand the honey super, you must first understand the basic structure of a modern Langstroth hive, which is built in vertical, stackable boxes.
The Brood Chamber: The Heart of the Hive
The bottom boxes of the hive make up the brood chamber. This is the colony's living quarters and nursery. Here, the queen lays her eggs, and the worker bees raise the young (the brood). The bees also store pollen and a certain amount of honey here for their own immediate use.
The Honey Super: The Beekeeper's Pantry
The honey super is any box placed on top of this brood chamber. Its sole purpose is to provide extra space for the bees to store honey once the brood chamber is full. Because bees instinctively store resources above the brood nest, they will naturally fill this upper box with surplus honey.
The Queen Excluder: A Critical Gatekeeper
A queen excluder is a flat screen with openings large enough for worker bees to pass through but too small for the larger queen. Beekeepers place it between the top brood box and the first honey super. This prevents the queen from laying eggs in the honey supers, ensuring the frames contain only honey and are free of brood.
Why Super Size Matters
Hive boxes come in standard sizes, and the choice is a practical one for the beekeeper.
Deep and Medium Boxes
Most brood chambers use deep or medium boxes. These provide ample space for the queen to lay and for the colony's essential food stores.
Medium and Shallow Supers
Honey supers are almost always medium or shallow boxes. The reason is simple: weight. A deep box filled with honey can weigh over 80 pounds (36 kg), making it extremely difficult to lift. Lighter medium or shallow supers, which weigh 40-50 pounds (18-23 kg) when full, are far more manageable.
Understanding the Trade-offs and Timing
Managing honey supers is a strategic activity that directly impacts hive health and honey production.
The Risk of Adding a Super Too Early
Placing a super on the hive before the colony is strong enough creates a large, empty space. The bees will struggle to patrol and warm this "dead air," which can divert energy from brood-rearing and even chill the brood on cold nights.
The Consequence of Adding a Super Too Late
If you wait too long, the bees will run out of storage space in the brood chamber. They will fill every available cell with nectar, leaving the queen with no room to lay eggs. This condition, called being honey-bound, is a primary trigger for the colony to swarm (when the old queen leaves with half the bees to find a new home).
The Queen Excluder Debate
While most beekeepers use them, some avoid queen excluders. They argue that the barrier can slightly slow down worker bees, creating a "honey ceiling" that may marginally reduce the speed of honey storage. However, for most, the benefit of a brood-free harvest far outweighs this potential downside.
How to Apply This to Your Hive
Your approach to using honey supers should align directly with your beekeeping goals.
- If your primary focus is a clean and efficient harvest: Always use a queen excluder to ensure your honey frames are free of brood.
- If your primary focus is ease of lifting and management: Standardize on medium or shallow supers for all your honey collection to keep the weight manageable.
- If your primary focus is preventing swarms: Add your first honey super when the top brood box is 70-80% full of bees to provide expansion space before they feel crowded.
Mastering the use of the honey super is the bridge between simply keeping bees and productively harvesting honey.
Summary Table:
| Component | Purpose | Common Sizes |
|---|---|---|
| Brood Chamber | Queen lays eggs; bees raise brood and store food for themselves. | Deep, Medium |
| Honey Super | Bees store surplus honey for the beekeeper to harvest. | Medium, Shallow |
| Queen Excluder | Prevents the queen from laying eggs in the honey supers. | Standard Sizes |
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