Building Your Own Supers

As stated earlier building you own supers is easy if you have a table saw.

You will still have to buy 2 medium boxes from the supplier. These will need to be used so that you can have the exact measurements for your boxes. Keeping everything exact is very important to stacking your boxes as well as for the frames you put in. If boxes are made incorrectly frames will fall through or not fit and bees will build more comb in the wrong places.

The boxes I make exclude the joints on the edge. I do this by shortening the short side and lengthening the long side as shown below. I also glue, tack, and screw boxes together.

1. Buy two medium boxes. Below shows the long and short pieces. You will make 2 of each.

Assemble one to check your finished product. Your boxes should stack and line up perfectly.

2. Find some wood that is at least as wide and long as your store bought boxes. (no plywood!!!!)

3. Set your saw for the width of the box.

4. Trim all the boards you’ve collected to the right width.

5. For the short sides I use the length of the wood minus the box notches.sdfds

6. For the long pieces I use the full length of the wood including the notches.

7. Use the table saw to cut grooves in the short pieces. This is where your frames will rest. I typically use the store bought piece and place it in the saw. I then raise or lower the blade to just the right place. There are two cuts. You will cut one vertically as shown in the picture (probably wan’t to do that first) then one horizontally.

8. Once the pieces are cut to size, use wood glue and tack them together. Then drill pilot holes and screw. Corners will look like the following picture. Handles are just chunks of deck wood or other wood you have.

I’ve found that gluing and screwing makes the boxes plenty strong, so I’ve ignored the box joint in the manufactured box. That’s why I make the short side shorter by not including the notches and then make up for it with the long side size including the notches.