When I first started beekeeping, hardly anyone was using all medium supers in their apiary, but it seems to have caught on more lately. So, I thought I would share why I like to keep my bees in all medium boxes. It’s not just about ease of lifting, I have discovered several other benefits to this style and I am happy to share them with you below.
Ease of Lifting
The most obvious benefit of using all medium supers is that they are lighter and easier to lift. For exapmple, if you like to have two brood boxes, you’ll need to lift one to get to the one on the bottom. This is much easier to do with two medium boxes. I like to give my colonies two medium boxes for their brood nest, then I add a queen excluder and continue to add supers as needed for honey.
Not only are medium boxes easier to lift because they weigh less, they are also a more managable size. They are less awkward to handle. I can easily take them off and put them back on which helps me crush fewer bees and makes me feel more confident in my movements. Even lifting frames out is easier. When I pull up a deep frame, the heigh of the comb provides many opportunities for hidden bridge comb firther down. It’s not always a problem, but sometimes deep frames are difficult to remove from the box and I can’t see what’s happening. Medium frames on the other hand, aren’t as tall. I can see the entire side before I begin lifting and deal with any bridge comb before I start to pull.
Calmer Bees
I find that when working all medium hives the bees are easier to keep calm. I suspect that this is because there are fewer bees in each box. So, as I work my way through, I am disturbing fewer bees per box. Also, I think that I make less mistakes that may result in crushed bees when I work mediums because both the frames and boxes they are lighter and easier to handle (as mentioned above). When a bee is crushed, she releases and alarm pheromone that may trigger other bees to become defensive.
Helps with Mites
Have you heard of the concept that less brood means less mites? Since varroa mites reproduce in honey bee brood, the more brood you have, the more opportunities the mites have to grow in population. Therfore, it can be beneficial to reduce the size of your brood nest. Instead of two deep brood boxes, try two mediums as I do! Alone, it is probably not enough to manage mite levels in your colonies, but it can used in tandem with other methods. You may wish to learn more about this idea from Dr. Tom Seeley. You can watch him talking about this and some related concepts in this presentation starting around 35:00 minute mark.
Flexibility
Another reason I love using all medium boxes is that it gives me more flexibility for managing my colonies. I like to be able to move frames between all my boxes. I find this especially helpful for cycling out older comb. When I want to get rid of a frame of comb that contains brood, I simply move it up above the queen excluder and wait for the brood to emerge and then I can remove it or wait for it to become honey and harvest it out. I also rearrange combs as a method for swarm control. I will move brood frames up above the queen excluder and replace them with empty frames in the brood nest. This breaks up the space and keep the brood nest from becoming crowded.
So what do you think? Would you give all mediums a try?
Very helpful! Thank you for sharing. I have a hive with 3 deeps and I have to say there are a lot of bees and sometimes hard to manage when I make a mistake. Will downsize to all supers before winter.
I have used one deep and all mediums above that just because I haven’t been able to find medium nucs locally! I would love to be able to do all mediums because of the more manageable size and the ability to move frames between all the boxes.
Yup! Same with me. My first year I started with a 3 lb package, so it worked out OK to have all mediums. Then I realized that it’s far better to start with nucs when you lose a colony over the winter. Now find myself with a mix of deeps and mediums and I hate it. My plan is to beg my go-to supplier to make me some medium depth nucs each year, even if I have to pay more for them. If that works, I’ll have a bunch of deep boxes and frames for sale.
You can also cut the bottoms off your deep boxes so that they are mediums instead.
Brilliant! I’m ashamed I didn’t think of that myself. Thanks.
I use deeps for brood and ideals for honey. I’m guessing mediums are somewhere in between. It makes a lot of sense to use uniform equipment for ease of manipulation. I would definitely consider changing to medium equipment.
I have read about other beekeepers using only supers, so I decided to try one hive as an experiment to see what would happen. The bees do seem calmer, and it is easier to check frames. Reading the article answered my question if you used a queen excluder, I put one on simply because I didn’t want to risk having brood in a honey frame. I did make the brood area 3 supers instead of 2, I will see how the bees adapt.
In cool climate Tasmania, Australia we use ideal boxes which are very close in size to your medium boxes. All the advantages are very true for us as well and the added bonus of being able to winter our bees in more densely packed boxes helps to provide high wintering success. Oh the flexibility of one box size, and only one type of box, frame and foundation if used is much easier!
As a beekeeper in Wisconsin, US, I second the value of overwintering in more densely packed boxes. My local mentor says this: “If you have done everything you can to test and treat for mites, the next most important part of successfully overwintering is giving them the best chance to stay warm with the least energy output. The smaller the space they have to keep warm, the better.”
There was a talk recently at the local bee club about using 8 frame mediums for beekeeping. It was very interesting.
My main concern is how to go from deeps to the medium? Instead of a 2nd deep on my hives I am going to add a medium and see how it goes.
Thanks for the post.
I was thinking of doing a post on this next 🙂
Hi Hilary, I’ve just found your blog – awesome info, thanks! I wondered if you had written the blog about moving from deep brood boxes to all mediums? I’ve a total mishmash mix and want to move everyone into mediums
Thanks
Hi I have not. It’s kind of hard to explain that one. I may have to do a video or something on it instead.
When I started keeping bees three years ago I decided to standardize on all 8-frame medium depth boxes, partly for the ease of lifting and partly for the interchangeability of parts. I still think this is a wonderful idea, in theory. Then, in year 2 I realized that the very best way to buy new bees is in a nuc. I live in Wisconsin and wish to buy bees from stock that has proven to overwinter well in our climate. And my go-to supplier sells only nucs, no packages. Virtually all nucs are in deep frames. So now I find myself with a mix of deep boxes, medium boxes, deep frames, and medium frames. Lots more storage space required, Lots less flexibility to move frames of bees from one hive to another. Way more complicated to do splits.
I hear ya! If you have saved comb from previous years though, maybe a package plus comb could be just as good as a nuc.
Thanks, Hilary. I lean toward nucs for several reasons: 1) Proven laying queen, 2) Existing brood, 3) I have a great local supplier who has long been selecting for VHS and overwintering ability in Wisconsin. And I just learned that he’s willing to make me some medium depth nucs for next year.
That’s great!
This was such a helpful post!
I’ve been beekeeping for a while but always mixed deep and medium supers without thinking much about the long-term management challenges.
Your explanation about lifting weights and standardizing frame sizes really made me rethink my setup.
Thanks for sharing your experience – it’s inspiring to see how simplifying can actually make beekeeping more enjoyable!
I’ll definitely consider switching fully to mediums next season.
i’m just starting, and trying to decide what boxes to buy. i think i’m going to go with all mediums, all 8-frames. i also intend on buying a nuc. I think i can put the deep nuc frames down through 2 mediums. Not sure how i’ll deal with that after they establish. what do you think?
I would see if you can start with a package instead. That saves you this problem!
This is my first year beekeeping, and I found this very helpful. The local apiary I got my bees from does all mediums as well. There are some others that are the two deep, and then the rest are mediums. I was having a hard time figuring out if one was more beneficial than the other, or if I would be doing something wrong by sticking with all mediums. Thank you for sharing.
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