# Weight of a full medium super



## beeware10 (Jul 25, 2010)

there would have to something other than honey and wood to get 70 lbs. we average 30 lbs honey and 35 lbs is a very full one. when loading a truck I say 50 lbs will be a good average. a super with 8 full frames will weigh more than 10 due to much thicker combs.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

odfrank said:


> Not that I would ever question the teachings of one of our most respected members, but having lifted many boxes for 45 years I have always been suspect of these numbers:
> 
> Name(s) Depth Weight full of honey Uses
> 
> ...


Its time someone finally stepped up and "waved the flag" on that piece of misinformation.


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

Although my Chernobyl hives have supers that weigh 70 LBs when full the extracted honey only comes to about 30 pounds Per. :lpf:


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## Colobee (May 15, 2014)

According to my very accurate "Health-O-Meter": a ( new) 10 frame medium, with 9 wet combs ( fully drawn) weighs right at 14 lbs. Year, after year, (after year) I've gotten ~35 lbs of honey, harvested from a 9 frame medium.

That math says a medium box ( either 9, or 10 frame) full of honey ought to be right around 50 lbs. 45lbs sounds much more reasonable than 70.


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## gmcharlie (May 9, 2009)

if you do the large scale math, great Il supers =20 per drum, average =22 -24 per drum, partials around 30 per drum..... 650 lbs per drum..... so large scale average is 30 lbs a full super.

A 1200 empty drawn supers weighed 16000 lbs last week......put the truck over on scales so had to come back and unload some.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

i also get about 13 lbs. for a medium with nine frames of empty drawn comb, and about 50 lbs. for medium with nine fat frames of honey.


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## ToeOfDog (Sep 25, 2013)

What is known as a 10 frame wooden medium with 9 frames, comb and honey , 59.5 pounds. I won the bet. I said it was 60 pounds.


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

The scales don't give the complete picture. When I pull supers, the last one I pick up weighs about twice what the first one did.


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## beeware10 (Jul 25, 2010)

If you can get over 45 lbs in a med your scales are off or they were way too crowded. lol


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## jbeshearse (Oct 7, 2009)

beeware10 said:


> If you can get over 45 lbs in a med your scales are off or they were way too crowded. lol


I don't know why you say that. I saw a post in the treatment free beekeeping Facebook page where the guy got 45 lbs then put the super back on an the bees filled it right back up with 65 lbs. gotta have me some of those magic bees not only treatment free but have a magical ability to compress honey. Think of the equipment savings. :banana:


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## TalonRedding (Jul 19, 2013)

Come on folks, you're missing the obvious. Everybody knows that when you START pulling honey, the medium super weighs anywhere between 30-40 lbs. by the time you are FINISHED pulling honey, the super has increased by another 30-40 lbs thus putting the weight to about 70 lbs or so. The last supers are ALWAYS the heaviest because the honey has had time to cure and become far more dense . That's my story and I'm sticking to it.


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## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

What's dense Talon?? haha

I totally agree! How the heck did the weights get off so bad? They had accurate scales back then! 

WHat did they do, get a Jockey from the local derby and ask him to estimate the weight??


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I found those ranges online a long time ago and I repeated them. It won't hurt my feelings if they are lighter. But they sound about right for a really packed super. Then again, they seem to weigh more every year... Weights also vary somewhat by how many frames you have in the boxes. I'm pretty sure 8 fat frames in a 10 frame box weigh more than 10 frames in a 10 frame box. Maybe not a lot. The problem of course is that they do vary in weight depending on how packed full they are and even by what kind of frames. A thick wooden top bar takes up a lot of space as opposed to a thin plastic one.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

So in any common usage that figure (though perhaps possible in special circumstances) is about 25% higher than what can be expected in the real world! Thirty pounds net per medium is what I expect though with my weak and sporadic flows I dont get many of those bragging frames pictured.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

We run mediums through our system all day long and also weighed them independently on a scale before and after. Nicely full boxes tend to average a little over 30 lbs net I have seen them average as high 35 lbs. or even a bit better but it takes pretty exceptional box quality to do that. We have honey pallets that hold 42 boxes (7 high) and you are never far off figuring they will yield 2, 55 gallon drums per pallet (that's a 31 lbs. avg. figuring 645 per drum). I have weighed individual boxes that were full to the point that it was difficult to imagine them holding much more and found them to gross 55 lbs and net 40 lbs. that's my story and I'm sticking to it.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

when it gets down to the final few pounds or so some of it has to do with how meticulous you are about recovering what settles in the extractor and drips off of the cappings. i've been going back 24 hours later to gather those and find that it adds a few lbs. per super to the yield. 

i estimated my harvest weight by adding up the volume of bottled up honey and multiplying 12 lbs per gallon. i extracted 23 medium 10 frame supers with 9 frames spaced out and hand picked the choice frames for harvest.

i ended up with 876 lbs. (calculated) which averages to right at 38 lbs. per super. i'm not sure i could be so 'meticulous' if i were working hundreds of hives, but that's how the numbers worked out this year.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

38 lb. averages? Wow. My experience is if they are weighing up like that you probably didn't get supers on in time and the phone is going to be ringing with swarm calls.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

actually i kept them with plenty of room and swarming was way down this year, hope to write about it soon.


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## Colobee (May 15, 2014)

Michael Bush said:


> A thick wooden top bar takes up a lot of space as opposed to a thin plastic one.


Maybe that's how I get 35 lbs. I use all plastic frames. Manufacturers claim ~"15% more cells, per frame". 30 lbs x 1.15 = 34.5 lbs. 'Makes sense...

That makes me wonder how much a medium (with a waterproof bottom) filled full with liquid honey would weigh. THAT would probably be pushing 70+ lbs... It would certainly set an upper "no BS" limit


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## jbeshearse (Oct 7, 2009)

jim lyon said:


> 38 lb. averages? Wow. My experience is if they are weighing up like that you probably didn't get supers on in time and the phone is going to be ringing with swarm calls.


I average about 35# net from FULL mediums. Highlight the word full. If there are frames that are drawn shallow or not finished it is less. Also that is recovering most of the cappings honey and including it in the average.

i would not be surprised if getting FULL mediums costs you honey in the long run. I add supers one at the time, not adding an empty until they have started storing nectar in the bed to the last outer frames. On a strong flow you can run out of room before you realize it. The reason I super like this is because my drawn comb supplies are very limited.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>...found them to gross 55 lbs...

Starting to get pretty close to 60...

So is the consensus that this would be closer?

10 Frame boxes:

Dadant Deep 90 pounds
Deep, Langstroth Deep 72 pounds
Western Bee Supply 7 5/8" 63 pounds
Medium 55 pounds
Shallow 45 pounds 
Extra Shallow36 pounds

8 frame boxes:

Dadant Deep 72 lbs
Deep 58 lbs
Western Bee Supply 7 5/8" 50 lbs
Medium 43 lbs
Shallow 36 lbs
Extra Shallow 29 lbs


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## beeware10 (Jul 25, 2010)

not sure where the 55 lb comes from. two or three commercials that only use med say 45 - 50 lb gross would be max not average. for us to bring honey back from sc I use 50 lb as its easy to figure in my head and gives me a cushion for being over weight. an empty 10 frame with 9 frames goes 13-15 lbs.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

beeware10 said:


> not sure where the 55 lb comes from. two or three commercials that only use med say 45 - 50 lb gross would be max not average. for us to bring honey back from sc I use 50 lb as its easy to figure in my head and gives me a cushion for being over weight. an empty 10 frame with 9 frames goes 13-15 lbs.


I think Mr. Bush is looking for a maximum number and I gave the 55 lb. number in reference to an extremely full medium that I had scaled (55 gross, 40 net). That would correspond with about 80 lbs. in a 10 frame deep which is a weight that I think is doable as well. Those aren't weights that you would ever want to shoot for, if you let them get that full you probably lost some honey and perhaps some bees as well.


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