Well, I am not a whiner. Take the bad with the good, is what I say. But, my current experience in the bee shop (translated, messy garage turned into workshop) may have had a profound effect on me.

Three weekends ago, I realized that I was short on Mediums. I use them as the top ‘hive body’ on my brood nest and for honey supers (I also use shallows for honey supers, which I was running short on, but figured I had enough for the honey.) Right now, I needed second stories to several swarms that I had caught earlier in the month.

I am mainly a Dadant customer, so I first checked them. The freight was nearly $200 for my order (and this was just to tide me over until Mother’s Day, when my wife would be in Chatham (Dadant’s Va branch) to be able to get a bigger load)! I couldn’t stomach that and even considered, multiple times, just driving down there. Finally, I ordered from Mann Lake, since they had free shipping. The merchandise was more expensive, but the total cost (Dadant included freight) was less than Dadant. I started building and painting supers.

Two weekends ago, I went out to hives that had between 1 and 3 honey supers on them, to check to see who needed more. I have already used up the meager supply of drawn wax supers, so I am in the ‘add a super of foundation’ phase, which has to take place 1 bloody super at a time. When you have several supers of drawn wax, you can literally drop them all on (I have never put on more than 2, but I know some folks that put on 3) before the flow and the bees (assuming you’ve chosen a strong hive) will happily fill all of the frames in all of the supers with honey.

On the other hand, if you dropped a bunch of supers with foundation on a hive, it would start working on the middle and probably give you a  headache at harvesting time. So, I was looking to see who could use another super. I brought 6 with me, as I didn’t feel like trucking the trailer down to Charles City and 6 is about what I could store in the Trailblazer with the inspection gear, spare Nucs and other beekeeping junk that I drag all over the world.

As of the second outyard, I was out of supers… Heh. Those gals were really pouring it on (of course, I have the laggards that will probably become Winter Nucs this Fall, but most were really putting it away.) At the time, I figured no problem! I’ll grab a few more supers from my shed tomorrow and make the rounds again. Much to my dismay, when I returned home that afternoon, I found zilch on the super front. I didn’t have a single one left. I knew I was out of Mediums, but had no idea I was out of Shallows (I need to be better organized.) So, I open the box of Medium frames from Mann Lake to get to work and suddenly realize these things are not wedge  bars!!! The wax I have won’t fit it and the wax from Mann Lake hasn’t arrived yet!

Panic mode.

Again, I think about driving to Chatham, Va. But, then I remember a posting on the Richmond Beekeepers mailing list from Tiny or Anthony Abate regarding a fellow in Mechanicsville that sold bee supplies! I called him first thing and bingo! He had what I needed. He is a dealer from Brushy Mountain. I ran up to get enough for 10 Mediums, which I was hoping would get me through Mother’s Day.

So, here is where we get to the guts of it. Mann Lake and what this guy sold were identical. A bit more expensive, but amazing woodwork. I had grown used to forcing super rabbets to  fit together and the occasional warped frame. With these new ones, not a single problem. In fact, putting the stuff together was a  piece of cake. Not one single equipment problem (2 of the super sides were damaged in shipping, but Mann Lake was resending them at  no charge!) I have over 50 hives and only the Lord knows how many Nucs. Each of the hives have at least 3 boxes (2 hive bodies and 1 super) and most have 4 or 5. I have a ton of Dadant equipment. I like the folks at Dadant. But, this Mann Lake stuff has me thinking that I may change horses. With free shipping, it makes it much easier to swallow. I haven’t officially made the switch yet, but I’m leaning that way a lot!

On a final note, I ended up getting an open bottom on my frames. I have always used a closed bottom. No reason for it. It’s just how I do my thing! But, about 50% of the time, I have to trim the wax to make it fit without buckling. These open bottoms eliminated that task completely! All in all, I have decided to make this change for sure. Wedged Top Bars with open Bottom Bars! Easy as cake.