A honey super is a part of a
commercial or other human-managed
beehive that is used to collect
honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...
. The most common variety is the "Illinois" or "medium" super with a depth of 6 inches, in the length and width dimensions of a
Langstroth hive.
A honey super consists of a box in which 8–10
frames are hung.
Western honeybees collect nectar and store the processed nectar in
honeycomb, which they build on the frames. When the honeycomb is full, the bees will reduce the
moisture content of the honey to 17-18% moisture content before capping the comb with
beeswax.
Beekeepers will take the full honey supers and extract the honey. Periods when there is an abundant
nectar source available and bees are quickly bringing back the
nectar, are called a
honey flow. During a honey flow, beekeepers may put several honey supers onto a hive so the bees have enough storage space.
Honey supers are removed in the fall when the honey is extracted, and before the hive is winterized, but enough honey is left for the bees to consume during winter.
The queen is kept out of the super with a
queen excluder, a device that lets worker bees through, but through which she is too big to pass. This prevents her from laying eggs (thus producing
brood comb) in the super. The area of lower levels in which she is allowed to lay eggs is called the
brood box. A brood box is similar to a super but tend to be deeper (taller).
Langstroth hive dimensions
Using inch wood the outside dimensions are 19" × 16" × height. In the metric system 25mm wood may be used, which makes the outside dimensions 515mm × 425mm × height.
References
External links
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Beekeeping tools
Buildings and structures used to confine animals
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