LESSON 4: Hive Components: Lesson Four: Inner & Outer Covers

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Today, we continue becoming familiar with the actual beehive box. It is important to know and to understand how the wooden ware fits together. In previous lessons, we started at the bottom and worked our way up the hive. Now we are ready to take a look at the two most top pieces, the inner cover and the top cover.

It might seem unusual to have two covers on a hive, the inner cover and the top cover. This is the common configuration, to place an inner cover on the top super, then place the top cover on top of the inner cover. Why? Good question. Here's the inner cover.

Before I answer that question, let me say it is not essential, at least not in my opinion to use an inner cover. I believe it is good, and can certainly aid the bees at times, to use an inner cover, but it is not always necessary. It is suggested that an inner cover, with an oval shaped hole in the middle, provides a dead air space between the top of the hive and the outside world. Many claim this insulates the hive from the heat or cold. Others claim that the inner cover is to keep the top cover from sticking to the frames.

We make notches in the inner cover rim, allowing the bees to have a top entrance or exit if they so choose and to increase ventilation.

Inner covers with notches make it difficult to seal the top of the hive in the event it becomes necessary, like when you want to seal your hive to move them, or keep them in when farmers spray chemicals or when other hives may try to rob the hive.

So, to add ventilation, I simply find a small stick, and put it under the top cover, which provides a slight opening, a slight air vent at the top. I use this on hot days, and during strong nectar flows to help the bees dry the moisture from the nectar speeding up the time it takes the bees to cap the honey.
Our inner covers also come with the oval shaped hole in the center. About half of our hives in our bee yards have inner covers. Some of our hives just have what is called migratory lids, just a flat wooden lid that covers the top of the hive.

We recommend the use of the inner cover because it does become useful throughout the year. If nothing more, it does make the top cover easier to remove.

The inner cover has a rim of wood, a wood strip on one side only. Customers often wonder which way this goes on the hive, with the rim down or up? Typically, the rim of wood faces up. In other words, the top cover goes down and lands on the rim of the inner cover. This provides the 1/4" spacing if the bees want to hang out between the inner cover and top cover, and a few do hang out there.
There are times when it is necessary to reverse the inner cover position, and place the rim down. I do this when I place pollen patties on the top bars of the frame. The extra spacing the rim provides is just right to accommodate the thickness of my patties and to place my top cover back on.

Throughout our years of keeping bees, we have been disappointed with inner covers that are made out of several pieces of wood. These seem to always fall apart. We build our inner covers from one piece of wood.

What's the oval shaped hole in the inner cover for? Good question. Obviously the bees can go in and out, but there is a reason it is oval shaped. We cut our holes perfectly to accommodate a bee escape. This is a small, usually plastic device, that many beekeepers use to get the bees out of the honey supers just prior to removing the supers full of honey. Here's how it works.

First, when you see that your honey super is sealed or capped with wax, you know it is ready to be harvested. But, there are still bees crawling over it. So, simply take the inner cover off, insert the bee escape in the oval shaped hole, and place the inner cover (rim up) under the super you wish to remove. The bee escape is designed so that the bees can walk out of the escape, but cannot get back in. Over the course of 3-5 days, most of the bees will be gone out of the super. Pretty cool huh! It will not work if a drone gets stuck or if there is brood in the super.

Migratory lids are often used by pollinators because it allows hives to be easily stacked. I do use migratory lids on many of my hives simply because I find them easy to work. No inner cover, just one flat piece of wood covering the top. My bees seem to do just as good with a migratory lid as without one. However, I don't like to winter my hives this way. I live in central Illinois and the winters are hard. Migratory lids don't keep out the elements the way an inner cover and top cover do. Notice two of my hives side by side. The white one on the left has an inner cover and a telescoping top cover. The green hive on the right simply has no inner cover, but a migratory lid that I added a piece of metal to.

Finally, the top cover. It is often called a telescoping top cover because it hangs over the hive body. Most telescoping top covers hang over between 1-2 inches. ALWAYS PLACE SOMETHING ON TOP OF THE HIVE TO KEEP THE LID DOWN. I've lost several hives because of strong winds and I did not have a brick or rock on the top and the lid blew off and the storm drenched the hive.

Tops do not have to have metal, but it does protect the wood from the weather. It is very important to allow for some ventilation at the top of the hive in the winter. Without some top ventilation, condensation can develop on the inside of the top of the hive, and drip cold water down onto the winter cluster of bees. This can cause the bees to die, not from the cold, but from being cold and wet. A little ventilation at the top can help the condensation to evaporate.

Tomorrow, we'll start taking a look at the honey bee. Can't wait!! Tell your friends!

LESSON THREE: Basic Beekeeping: Lesson Three: SUPERS

In lesson one, we took a look at the placement of a hive, the hive stand and the bottom board. Then, in our last lesson, we examined the deep hive body. These lessons can be viewed at anytime by simply scrolling down or back.

Today, let's take a look at the honey super. Some new beekeepers pronounce "super" incorrectly, calling it a "supper", like what you eat at night. It only has one "p", so it is pronounced the same as when you say, "super size it please." Since we have already discussed the two deep hive bodies, sometimes also called deep supers, today we are looking at the supers that are placed above the hive chamber, on top of the deep hive bodies. These are the supers we place on hives with the intent to remove whatever honey the bees store in these supers.

The width (16 1/4") and depth (19 7/8") will be the same for all boxes, including the honey super. The difference with the super is the height. There are three sizes used for honey supers. Beekeepers with strong backs sometimes use the deep size, 9 5/8" in height. A very common size is 6 5/8" in height. This is also called the Illinois super or a medium super. Then there is the small super. It is 5 5/8" tall.

Here's a picture of all three sizes, side by side. As you can see, the only difference is the height, which is very critical, because the greater the height, the larger the frame in height, and the larger the frame, the more honey it can hold. Therefore, a deep super full of honey can weight close to 90 pounds. A medium close to 60 pounds and a small 30-40 pounds.

There are some limitations when using the small super. There is no plastic foundation made for that size super. And, during a heavy nectar flow, you will have to super your hives more frequently. Also, it takes the same amount of time to uncap a small super as it does a deep or medium super. And, you get a lot less honey from a small super for the same amount of work. In an upcoming lesson, we'll discuss when and how to add supers. But for now, we are merely getting familiar with the hive components.

Some beekeepers use only 8 or 9 frames in a honey super, while others use all 10. It does make a difference. Obviously, if you use 9 frames, the comb on each frame will be drawn out wider by the bees, thus making much more space for the honey. It is true that a 9 frame super will usually contain more honey than a 10 frame because all nine frames are larger and can hold a total that exceeds 10 smaller drawn frames. Wider combs are easier to uncap because the comb exceeds past the wooden frame, allowing the uncapping knife to ride along the wooden frame as a guide and uncapping all cells. Sometimes if the frames are not pulled out past the wooden frame edge, the uncapping knife cannot uncap the recessed cells. In our hives some have a total of 9 and some have a total of 10 frames.

To help achieve the 9 frame spacing, a metal frame rest is often used. This frame rest is different from the plain frame rest in that it actually has notches to hold each of the 9 frames, giving a perfect spacing between all 9 frames. Be prepared for a few challenges with 9 frame spacers. First, you cannot slide your frames horizontally. They are held tightly in the notches. There are times when you need to slide your frames. But if you use 9 frame spacers, you will have to lift them straight up and out to move them. Secondly, the various gaps around the metal notching gets pretty gunked up with propolis, giving nice hiding places for wax moth or small hive beetle to hide and lay eggs. If you don't have problems with these pests, then it's not an issue. Notice the build up of propolis in this picture on a 9 frame spacer rail below.

We'll discuss supering a hive in a future lesson, but for now, you can place as many supers on your hive as your bees want to fill up. I typically have at least 2-3 supers on my hives during the Spring and Summer.

Our next lesson will be the two final pieces to the hive, the inner cover and the outer cover. See you then!

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