Super tips and tricks

Everything you wanted to know about honey supers but were afraid to ask.

Or, more accurately, everything I can think of about using honey supers … partly because it came up in conversation a couple of times this week, and because it's timely with the summer nectar flows nearing completion.

Inevitably this is going to reflect the way I use and manage my honey supers, rather than being an unbiased overview covering every eventuality. Some things will be omitted altogether e.g. cut comb and sections, because I don't have enough experience of what works and what does not.

I'm going to restrict my discussion to the use of supers for nectar storage and honey production, so nothing here about brood and a half {{1}}, queen banking, or using super frames in the brood box.

On certain topics I'll be dogmatic. This either indicates I've tried alternatives and know from experience what a terrible option they are. Alternatively — and perhaps more likely — I've thought about the alternatives and can see no justification for why they'd be better, so I stick to what I know works.

However, as with everything to do with beekeeping, there's more than one way to do it, so if you have any 'top tips' please add them to the comments.