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Honey Supers
Honey supers fall into a number of categories:
All of the supers shown below come from the various catalogs we have received for 2003 They all have online web sites and are valuable sites to visit. See www.dadant.com www.mannlakeltd.com and www.kelleybees.com
The shallow or medium honey
super 
This picture is from the Walter T. Kelly Catalog for 2003. www.kelleybees.com
The shallow super is 5 3/4" deep. It takes a shallow frame 5 1/2". It will hold approximately 30 pounds of honey when all comb is drawn out and filled. For those who do not like lifting the large deep super or heavier medium supers full of honey, this super would be fine. One will need to use these for the honey supers and not the brood chamber. Often one can find a beekeeper that uses a deep super with a shallow super for the brood chamber. This is true especially in the southern warmer areas of the U.S. I do not know of any beekeepers using just shallow supers for both honey supers and brood chambers; however, I don't see why it would not work.
The cost for a shallow super is going to be just a dollar or two less than the cost of a medium super. The cost of the frames would be the same regardless of the depth of the end bars. Shallow supers seem to be preferred over other sizes for cut comb honey. They also require one horizontal wire for supporting the foundation rather than two or more required in the larger frames.
The choice for foundation is more limited. At the time that I put this topic together, plastic frames with foundation were not available in the shallow size. One can buy wax foundation in all the various varieties such as wired or unwired, thin, brood and special cut comb foundation in which the cells are larger than brood cells.
The Medium Super
The medium super is 6 5/8" deep. It is attractive for a number of reasons. It will hold approximately 40 pounds of honey when all comb is drawn out and filled. For those who do not like lifting the large deep super, this is a good compromise. In fact, the "Bee Lady," Florence Beathard of Columbus, Ohio recommends this for anyone who has trouble lifting heavy weights especially those of us who are older. Three medium hives will equal the same hive size as two deep hives. We know of a number of beekeepers who use nothing but medium hive bodies for both the brood chamber and honey supers. It holds more honey than a shallow super.
The medium super is sometimes called an Illinois depth super. So if you hear someone talking about Illinois supers you know they are talking about medium depth supers.
The cost for a medium super is not much more than the cost of a shallow super. Regardless of the frames you buy, they cost the same for any depth of super. Remember that it takes just as much time to build a shallow frame as it does a medium or deep frame and for the cost you are getting about 1/5 to 1/4 more honey with the same labor by using medium supers than shallow supers.
The beekeeper also has access to many of the choices in foundation found offered for deep supers. One can buy wired medium foundation, medium brood foundation (not wired), thin cut comb foundation, and plastic foundation in the medium size. Plastic frames in the medium size are also available.
One clear advantage of having all medium supers is everything would be standard throughout. All frames would be of one size and completely interchangeable from one box to the next. All boxes would be of one size. All heights of supers would be uniform in size. This is important if moving hives of bees and the hives must be stacked one on top of another as commercial beekeeper do when moving bees by the truck load. However, commercial beekeepers would most likely be using deep supers. The deep super will hold approximately 60 pounds of honey. The commercial guy doesn't have to worry too much about lifting -- they have equipment to do the lifting.
The Traditional Comb honey
super 
This picture is from the Walter T. Kelly Catalog for 2003. www.kelleybees.com
This is the traditional 4 3/4 inch comb honey super. It will hold 28 sections in which the bees store about 12 oz. of honey. Many of these are available as used equipment. The basswood section boxes are popular with the buying public but are being replaced by the Ross Round Plastic sections described below. We checked several of these catalogs and only found the basswood sections in the Kelly catalog. I remember when they bought the equipment of A.I. Root a few years back to manufacture these boxes.
Comments: The wood basswood sections must be put together. They are sold flat and the beekeeper must wet the "V" grooves at each bend to prevent breakage. This is a good winter job. If the separators are not used the section boxes are not filled uniformly with some boxes having comb extending out beyond the edges of the box and the section boxes will be hard to fit into the cartons. Also each section box will vary considerably in weight.
I am sure others can supply them. The parts to this honey super include:
The Ross Round - TM honey super 
This picture is from the Walter T. Kelly Catalog for 2003. www.kelleybees.com
This comb honey super is becoming popular and has resulted in the shift by many suppliers because beekeepers find less labor involved in getting this super ready for the honey crop and it is enclosed in a plastic protective cover which prevents leaking of the honey inside. The parts to this honey super are:
It is popular because it doesn't require the time to put together as the basswood sections. The section frames can be reused and once the initial cost is out of the way, the rings and covers can be purchased separately. A super will hold 32 sections and each will weigh about 8 oz. each. However, the selling price is about the same as the wood sections.
The Hogg -TM Half comb honey super
This
picture is from the Mann Lake Ltd. 2003 catalog. www.mannlakeltd.com
The Hogg half comb honey super is another comb honey system. It compares in start up price with the other comb honey systems. It is a modular comb honey system in which modules (one -piece plastic cassettes interlock to form self-supporting columns of individual comb honey sections) are placed into the honey super. Conversion kits are sold to convert standard shallow supers to hold the plastic modular boxes. What you need:
Comments: This system requires no thin wax foundation. The bees build wax on the embossed plastic on the back of the cassette which is coated with a spray cover of beeswax. It requires no separators and no assembly as the other two system thus it is very fast to put together. The boxes are square much like the wooden basswood sections and can be stacked easily. The major use of the product is unlike the other two in that it is only 1/2 of a comb. The user must spoon the wax and honey from the cassette. This might be considered an advantage but I like to pick up the product and chew on it to get the honey. It is not possible to cut the wax comb out of the cassette, put it into a dish, and use it in the traditional fashion. On the plus side, it is not as messy and the cassette is a handy way to serve the honey in the comb.
This
picture is from the Mann Lake Ltd. 2003 catalog. www.mannlakeltd.com
Many beekeepers dispense will all the special conversions required to produce comb honey in boxes, rings or cassettes. Producing comb honey is an exacting skill and failure in poorly filled containers has always been part of producing a comb honey crop. Special management skills are required and it usually takes several seasons before complete success is achieved. For the beginning beekeeper and the beekeeper who doesn't want to invest a great deal of money in producing comb honey, this is mostly the best choice. First it requires very little different than regular extracted honey. You can use either standard shallow supers or medium supers. You would need to build the frames just like the extracted frame. The major difference is you would use thin wax foundation rather than brood or wire foundation. As the comb honey producer you can also use the comb in what is called chunk honey bottles. Chunk honey is simply a strip of comb honey placed in a honey jar and then filled with honey. It makes a nice product and is popular with the buying public. If you like the idea of comb honey, you can market cut comb honey in square comb honey containers which are designed just for that purpose. These containers are readily available.
To produce cut comb honey, you will need a cutting board for the excess honey to drip from the wax and a firm surface to cut or use a special comb cutter to remove the comb from the frame. The Kelley Company www.kelleybees.com sell a nice comb slicing pan which we have used with delight to cut the comb. It has a perforated stainless steel tray that is fit into a stainless bottom tray. The honey drips through the holes in the steel tray into the bottom tray. Once enough honey has collected in the bottom tray, it can be poured into a glass jar. Thus you can have cut comb honey in containers and chunk honey in bottles. The poorer capped comb can be used in the chunk honey bottles.
What you need:
The deep honey super , Standard shallow, and Medium super for extracted honey
This picture is from the Dadant 2003 catalog.
The large majority of beekeepers produce bottled honey. The honey is extracted from the comb by using a device called an extractor. Because of the force of gravity on the comb, it is necessary to wire frames to prevent damage to the comb. One can also buy reinforced comb which is called "wired". Wired comb is foundation which has wire embedded into the wax at the factory. Because it is wired, don't assume that it does not need to be cross wired in the frame. Often the force on the side of a full comb of honey in the extractor is very great. The result is a blow out -- the comb is thrown out of the frame completely. To prevent damage to comb used in an extractor we suggest that deep frames have four cross wires, medium and shallow frames have at least two cross wires. Another choice in foundation is the introduction of a complete plastic frame with plastic foundation (no labor required for assembly) or plastic foundation inserted in wood frames. You have the choice of several products. We would also like to point out that a shallow super will weigh about 40 pounds to lift when full of honey (about 30 pounds of that weight is honey), a medium super will weigh about 50 pounds to lift when full of honey (about 40 pounds of that weight is honey) and a deep super will weigh about 70 pounds to lift when full of honey (about 60 pounds of that weight is honey). Commercial beekeepers often use deep supers for honey supers because everything is interchangeable, they have equipment to handle them, and less investment in number of boxes needed. It cost just as much to buy shallow frames as it does deep frames. It takes two times as much labor to build shallow frames than deep frames to get an equal amount of honey. It also takes two times the amount of time to handle the shallow supers at extracting time. We consider deep honey supers not suitable for the hobby beekeeper because of the weight but that is a decision for the beekeeper to make not us.
Comments: In our experience, bees draw real wax foundation faster than they do plastic coated with wax. However, the plastic foundation does have some advantages.