# Medium Super, 8 frame



## mblue (May 8, 2010)

I'm trying to decide what equipment to buy for my first hive. 
Can I use Medium Honey Supers, 8 frame for the entire hive?

Is this a bad idea? What would the disadvantages be? 

After reading for hours about horizontal hives I've decided 
that I want frames and a vertical setup but I like the idea 
of all equipment being universal and lighter weight boxes.


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## Brooklyn (Nov 14, 2009)

Great Idea.
I use all 8 frame mediums and they work great.

Check them out
http://brooklyn55bees.blogspot.com/

Have fun and good luck
Brooklyn


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## StevenG (Mar 27, 2009)

While I tried 8 frame medium, I reverted to 10-frame deep with shallow extracting supers. BUT, many run 8 frame med. quite successfully. See Mike Bush's site, and do a lot of reading. You'll learn scads from him. And go with your inclinations.
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm
Regards,
Steven


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## ehallspqr (May 2, 2010)

Using all 8 frame mediums for brood and honey sounds good on paper. One size hive box and frames. Lighter overall weight to save your back and smaller colony size for management, lower aggression etc. I'm setting up my first 8 frame but I went with the standard deeps for brood and will be using the mediums for honey. Plan to have two brood deeps and 2 mediums for honey although I may go one deep and one medium for brood. For people using all mediums perhaps 3-4 for brood? Brooklyn sounds like the man to ask.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

I think that 8-frame medium depth hives can be just as populous as other configurations. Here is a pic of the surplus population, early clustering (bearding) on the outside of an 8-frame medium hive when the hive only has one honey super on. 









I've had many hives with similar beards but on hives with six and more honey supers above the brood supers. I consider they are even as populous as any 10-frame hive configurations I've used or seen before.


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## fafrd (Aug 22, 2009)

Joseph Clemens said:


> Here is a pic of the surplus population, early clustering (bearding) on the outside of an 8-frame medium hive when the hive only has one honey super on.


Joseph, is this amount of bearding supposed to be good news or bad news? I would have thought that this degree of bearding was a sign of overcrowding and so that swarming could be a concern, but as you have a great deal more experience than me, I am interested in your interpretation...

-fafrd


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

For me it's good that the hives are that strong. With my configuration - I have almost no swarming:








I've been getting that much bearding, I assume; because of our hot summers and because I often don't have sufficient honey supers available to give all my hives optimal storage space. It's hard to know the precise reason, for an absolute certainty, the bees don't actually complain in English, yet.


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## mblue (May 8, 2010)

Hi everyone,
Thanks for the responses. Well after even more hours of searching / reading here and bush farms web site (great link SteveG) I've decided to go with 8-frame deeps and mediums for my first hive, just starting out it may be the way to go for now and change later when I add new hives. I'm just looking forward to getting started, hopefully everything will get here quick so I can get some bees.


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## NY_BLUES (May 14, 2009)

mblue-
I run all 8 frame medium hives and i dont regret it. One size frame, and box greatly simplifies the operation and a lot less confusion when the help isnt sure of what I am actually asking for. But hey, the help is free so i cant complain to much!!!


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## jrbbees (Apr 4, 2010)

Is there a standard set of measurements for an eight(8) frame Lang box.
I have a set for the 10 but want to know if there is a standard for the 8 frame?

Thanks


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## Tom Fran (May 18, 2010)

Here's a link to where you can get your measurements.


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## RAWMAWTAW (Mar 7, 2011)

I like your design, did you make your 8 frame hive & supers and what are your dimensions?


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Any complaints about eight frame hives tipping over?


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