8-frame medium super for fixed hives (Dadant US / Langstroth)

01 · WHY HALF

You are the one lifting it

A full super of honey goes past 25 kg and has to come up from the ground, often with the July sun on your back. The half stays at half that, so it is handled one at a time and stacks without drama. In exchange for two good things: the bees cap a smaller volume sooner, and separating harvests by flow is easier when each unit is small.

02 · EIGHT FRAMES IN A TEN-FRAME BOX

And the strip that holds the spacing

It takes eight frames in a body with ten-frame dimensions, and that is not an oversight: with more room between combs the bees draw them thicker and uncapping comes off clean in a single pass. What holds the whole idea together is the galvanised spacer strip, which fixes the exact distance and stops them building cross combs. Without it, eight loose frames in that space would be a problem, not an advantage.

03 · THE TIMBER

25 mm pine, dried and rested

Solid Pinus pinaster pine, 25 mm, with tongue-and-groove joints, which is what takes field damp without opening at the corners. The wood is dried to 12% moisture and rested for a year before being worked — that is why it does not move afterwards — and it carries no chemical products: biosecurity is handled with phytosanitary heat treatment.

04 · MAKING IT FIT

Fixed-apiary 25 mm, not thin-walled

External dimensions are 51.5 × 43 × 17 cm, worked out for bodies with 25 mm walls. If your hives have thinner walls, supers do not sit flush and you are left with steps where robbing gets in. Measure the body before ordering: it takes a minute and saves a return.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is for fixed-apiary hives with 25 mm walls (Dadant US and Langstroth). It comes with the 8 frames and the strip, but without foundation and unpainted.