Lifting the supers?

I now have a full super and its a heavy thing.
Even the brood box is heavy enough.
How is everyone moving their hive?

Am looking at making something similar to the Apihelper

Onrbikes,

Iā€™m down here SE of Seattle in the foothills. How many hives are you working ? Are your hives 8 or 10 frame ? Iā€™m just trying to get an idea what issues you are facing with heavy brood box(s) n supers. Do you have health or back issues. I am aware of how heavy hives full of honey n brood can be.

. Here is my apiary n one 10 double deep hive is hidden behind my barn workshop.

Iā€™m just about to turn 71 yrs so understand being careful n moving these heavy boxes. I try to have my hives raised about 18" off the ground. Also when lifting n removing full boxes I try to have someplace off the ground 18" or so to set the heavy beasts. Really donā€™t want to screwup at my age. I find keeping boxes higher as I break a hive down limits issues of messing up my back. Iā€™ve always been around having to lift heavy stuff so try to keep my back straight n lifted with my legs. That will really save your back.

Iā€™m slowly in the progress of using lighter cedar boxes. Also Iā€™ve with my first Flow-hive Iā€™ve started working toward a lighter hive with 8 frames instead of the normal 10.

I use shallow honey supers because they are much lighter n easier on my back on
my several 10 frame conventional Langstroth ā€¦

Not sure if any of this info helps. But until
you figure out a lifting device be careful n lift safely n enjoy your bees.

Take care up there near Baker.
Gerald east of Renton

Sorry about the puzzle. It slipped in when I downloaded the pixā€™s.

Yes.lifting a full super to look in the brood box is an issue. Take some frames out?
As for moving the whole hiveā€¦if you are doing an artificial swarm where you do have to move the brood box it pays to move again frame you frame if you canā€™t lift the whole thing. Find and cage the queen first or better still have a nuc box handy and put the frame she is on in it to keep her safe while you work on the rest.

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whatā€™s the damn answer? :wink:

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@Semaphore, itā€™s quite obvious really,
It just takes a littleā€¦time.
:wink:

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Semaphore,

Concentrate on the middle ā€œ10ā€ā€¦ My brain wouldnt GO the mile for me either. This puzzle was staring me in the face for 2 months every time I walked in our BANK ! I took the here n gave to my wife. Solved by her in less than five minutes ā€¦ Give it a bit more try n I or some SMARTIE can post in a day ! Gerald

It took me several months before the solution finally hit meā€¦someone on this forum pointed it out to me. Dee? Dawn?

I keep an empty deep box on a table near my hives. When I need to remove the top brood box to inspect the bottom one, I move 4-5 frames from the top to the spare. Then it is a simple thing to lift and move the top box with the remaining frames. I can either set them aside on the ground, or stack them on top of the spare. Easy!

mb

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Can you harvest your Flow Frames and then lift the super off?
Also, you can move the frames out individually (if you donā€™t want to harvest) and then afterwards move the super off the top?

All my boxes, other than the flow super, are eight frame mediums. Never over 50 lbs.

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Yeh this seems the way to go.
At present I have 3 flow hive setups (full depth) and 2 non flow hiveā€¦

The spare would allow me to modify an existing box.

Ah okay, I thought you meant a full Flow Super.
I guess that can be the hard thing with full traditional supers.

You can definitely modify your existing supers. You have probably seen this, but just in case you havenā€™t - https://www.honeyflow.com/faqs/modifying-a-langstroth-box-for-flow-frames/p/143#a1


Pardon my ingorance, but whatā€™s HEAVY LIFTING ?

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Nothing like a beeeautiful pun :bee:

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what is that to do with bees?