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How to make your supers…. super!

Supers are vital pieces of equipment if we intend to manage honeybee colonies productively. They spend half of their time in storage and the other half on the hives. In this article, I explain how supers can be used proactively to help prevent swarming and to achieve quality combs built right down to the bottom bars.

As winter releases its grip and the days lengthen, the queen will begin to lay—at first just a few eggs, then gradually more, depending on the colony’s stores and, later, the first incoming pollen and nectar. By late March, bee numbers increase rapidly, and the first supers are added to the hives.

Our bees are wintered on standard single National brood boxes, so a queen excluder is added before placing the supers. If foundation is being used, add one super; if drawn comb is available, add two. Ideally, drawn comb is best, as it gives newly-hatched bees some space, relieving pressure on the brood nest. Since our combs are stored wet, the bees show no hesitation in moving up into them.

A full frame of capped worker brood, when hatched, equates to approximately three frames of adult bees. A brood chamber can quickly become overcrowded, potentially triggering the swarming impulse. Once bees begin to consider swarming, it becomes difficult to reverse their intent—at that point, swarm control becomes necessary. Early supering can play a key role in preventing this trigger.

If April brings warm enough weather for a nectar flow, the bees will draw foundation quickly, and a surplus of honey can be achieved. However, the beekeeper must monitor super space regularly. Around this time, it may also be warm enough to consider a brood check—but work with the bees and the weather. Valuable information can often be gathered through observation alone. For example, if the number of worker bees is increasing, the queen is fertile and laying, so you don’t necessarily need to see her just yet. Wait for ideal inspection weather, and in the meantime, let the supers ease pressure on the brood nest.

When adding supers, our preference is to place a new super directly above the brood nest, with any partially filled supers above it. This encourages foundation to be drawn down to the bottom bars. Drawing foundation also diverts bees from swarming. We also like to add a couple of frames with starter strips above the excluder to allow bees the option of building drone comb. The queen cannot access these, but they seem to keep the bees satisfied. These drone comb frames remain empty above the brood nest—just ensure the queen doesn’t accidentally find her way into the supers!

Drone brood is often a precursor to swarming, but having empty drone comb above the brood nest seems to help with swarm prevention. Later in the season, this comb is often repurposed for honey storage during the main flow. Drone comb is important—naturally built on the outer edges of the nest. Early in the season, bees want to use it for breeding, but later they prefer it for storage. Perhaps wax economy plays a role here: drone cells hold more honey than worker cells.

Good super combs are invaluable. We begin with standard Hoffman-spaced frames in the first supers, allowing the bees to start drawing these before transferring them into castellated ten-frame supers. If ten frames of foundation are given without initial drawing, the spacing can be too wide, and bees often build natural comb between foundation sheets, spoiling them. Using Hoffmans removes the need for end spacers, and the castellated spacers ensure neat, parallel combs, simplifying extraction.

As an added bonus, this method saves two frames per super, enabling more supers to be built—five twelve-frame supers become six ten-frame boxes. We now also use checkerboarding in the supers. If we have one box of drawn comb and one of foundation, alternating comb–foundation–comb results in good-quality combs for extracting. This technique also seems to encourage colonies to draw wax more readily.

I hope you find these thoughts useful—and may your supers be full of honey.

David