Hi, i´m preparing for my first hives, have some plans for them and i need to know what will be complete weight of fully occupied hive full of honey.
I´m going to place hives on the roof so i need to check if the roof construction has enough strength to support the hives in summer when they are full of honey and in winter, when bees have their winter storage plus snow on the roof.
Mine reached a maximum of just over 94kg, not including the hive stand. I had exactly the configuration you describe - 2 brood boxes and one honey super. We did briefly have a medium on top as well (about 4kg with frames of undrawn foundation), to encourage them to cap the Flow super. I also have a slatted rack below the lowest brood box, which probably weighs around 5kg.
In winter, you will probably take the Flow super off. Going into winter, my hive currently weighs just over 43kg, but they seem to have found a nectar source, so it is going up again. 
That is 2 brood boxes plus a slatted rack.
Hi Dawn, can you explain the rationale behind the medium on the flow super?
I am not sure about the logic, but I did this based on experience. In my previous traditional hives, the bees would sometimes not cap a super fully until there was another super above for them to work on. It could be to do with humidity and space for fanning - putting another empty super on top helps reduce the humidity so that they can dry out the honey and cap it faster. That is the theory, but I can tell you that it actually does work in practice - I have done it many times.
Here is the graph showing the humidity as a blue line. You can see it dropped by 5-10% when I put the medium on top on April 29th:
Great tip, I don’t remember hearing it before, thanks.
I have. The bees need the space to evaporate the water especially if the nectar is coming in faster than they can cope with it. They will fill cells without waiting to cap them then cap when things start to slow down
Heavens. I have my poly boxes overwintering on 30kg!
Dawn,
How much is that in American ?! Lost my calculator 
! Thankz ahead … me !
P.S. feeling bum my bean/brain ain’t working to well today.
Hi Gerald, I used to work on 2.2 pounds to the kilo. A hundred kilos is roughly 220 pounds take away 13.2 = roughly 207 lbs. The operative word being “roughly”.
Hi Jerry,
94kg is just over 204lb. That was my hive’s maximum summer weight before harvesting.
The current 43kg weight is about 95lb. I would guess that more than half of that is honey stores for the bees, but we will feed as needed when the weight drops. These are greedy Italian bees, and they may well run short before winter ends.
Morning Dawn,
Still sniffing from a cold ! I usually get past the first n second round of colds but screwed somehow this season. Thank for the thots n advice … just needed someone to run that stuff by.
Yah ! I’ve got the same greedy girls n it was a rough lean summer (long/hot/dry/ n mostly flowerless later part). I only harvested a few incomplete frames trying to add at least/have at least 6 to 8 near full frames depending on weather it was 8 or 10 frame colony.
I’ve got sugar n patties sitting atop the upper box. I know they are in the cookie jar already as I’m seeing chewed wax paper outside the entrances already. I’ll have to keep rechecking … after fighting mites so late I don’t need to loose by starvation as well. I have three Nuc’s already ordered for April 2018 … if I hold (remaining colonies survive healthy) I can replace last seasons losses n grain one. That will put me at 6 hives with expansion to 7 or 8 if I need to split to keep from Spring/Summer swarming. At least that’s my plan.
Just got to get this health thingy out of the way so I can move on n be a busy happy beekeeper.
Cheers my friend,
Jerry
BTW Dawn … what does your Apiary look like ?! Not sure I’ve seen a pix yet. Or just forgot !
I will take a picture later today. 
Edit: Here is a photo for you. I didn’t photograph the entrances - they are both very busy, with more than a dozen bees on the landing boards. The hives have 3 deeps, but only 2 are in use. The top deep is above a closed inner cover, and is there in case we need to feed.
You and @Gerald_Nickel should keep Carnica. Brilliant honey gatherers and frugal over winter. Prolific so need active management but you get a great reward.
Not sure if Carnies would stop laying in our climate. First week of December and we are still warm outside. Lows down to 12C overnight, but highs up to 30C, and that is a full shade temperature, although probably some heat is radiating up from the patio stones:
Yes probably right. My musings often ignore the rest of the world. 
Dawn,
Great look 
! Thankz for giving me a peek ! Great share … Had frost up here this morning n dropped to 30.8 dgs. Off n on sunshine n fog … No bees sticking their noses out
Been really down with the flu then 12 hours later a cold caught me ! That sucked ! I think I’m coming out of the woods now. Cooked a scallop potatoes casserole tonight ! Sure hit the spot … Haven’t felt like cooking or eating until today.
Just popped one pix of my frosty Flow-hive tonight. Brrrr ! Cheers n Merry Christmas 
Hi Dawn , that’s a fantastic unit you have there giving you all that information can i ask what it is and how does it all work from the hive ? I have just finished our third harvest tonight …since October 10th 2017 we have now harvested 53.3kgs of honey !!
We are very excited with our bees performance in our first year of beekeeping looking to get a second flow going soon 
Kind regards
Mark Kate and kids
It is an Arnia Hive Monitor. You are reminding me that I promised to write a review… 
I will do so within the next month. Promise… Meanwhile, here is their web site:
That is fantastic Dawn …sent them an email for price etc a few days ago still no reply ?
Im thinking they dont export to Australia !!
Mark Kate and Kids
