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Isolating the Honey Super

Isolating the Honey Super

When you first split a hive you may wish to isolate the Honey Super (top section)

  • It reduces the volume of the hive so is less area for the bees to secure and maintain
  • You can easily remove the Honey Super to view the live hive inside the box below without disturbing the colony

Below – The OATH with Honey Super consists of three boxes. When isolating the Honey Super you’re basically blocking access to the top box.

Below – You can see the clear plastic separator plate. This plate stops the brood cone rising up any further. The bees will use the top box as a storage area for honey. Sometimes the bees build walls and block off sections of areas if they think the area is too big.

Below –  Blocking off the top box with tape allows the bees to concentrate their efforts on securing and maintaining the main section of the hive.

While you have the Honey Super blocked off with tape you can easily remove the top box and view the colony through the clear plate. Hopefully after a few months your view will be blocked by the construction going on inside the hive. If the bees haven’t already chewed through the tape you might remove the tape to allow the bees access to the top box so they can then fill it out with honey stores.


Below: The clear acrylic sheet divides off the honey super. There’s a 50mm hole drilled in the sheet and is covered by a small square of acrylic. This isolates the area until the small square is removed.

Some of my standard boxes use plywood as a honey super separator plate..

Hivecraft - Australian Native Bee Supplies

Native bee boxes available at www.hivecraft.com.au

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