r/Beekeeping Wiki

Weights and Measurements

Below are rough estimates of the weight of honey stored in various frame sizes for diffreent hive types.

These are ballparks are purposefully lowballed for the purposes of optimism / pessimism… whichever way you look at it.

Syrups

Standard recipe for syrup is as follows, and give you the resulting syrup amount, so as to be helpful in terms of provisioning backwards.

Ratio Sugar Water Syrup
2:1 10 kg 5 L 11-12 L
1:1 10 kg 10 L 16-17 L
10:13 10 kg 13 L 20 L
  1. Bring desired amount of water to the boil.
    • 1:1 syrups don’t need boiling water, just warm/hot is fine.
  2. Take off the heat
  3. Pour in sugar
  4. Stir until completely dissolved

TODO: Add info re thymolising

British Standard National

Frame Size Full frame Full box
Deep (14x12) 4 kg 30 kg
Standard (brood) 2 kg 25 kg
Shallow (super) 1 kg 20 kg

⚠️ These weights are for a “standard use case”. That is to say, 14x12 and brood boxes being used as brood, and not honey supers. These weights will also vary dramatically depending on the number of frames, the amount of honey vs brood etc. If you are using standard brood frames as honey supers, the weight of this will be far higher. Closer to (if not above) 30kg than 25. Do not try and lift a 14x12 box full of honey/stores if you don’t go to the gym.

Langstroth

Frame Size Full Frame Full 8-Frame Box Full 10-Frame Box
Deep 8 lbs 64 lbs 80 lbs
Medium 5 lbs 40 lbs 50 lbs
Shallow 4 lbs 32 lbs 40 lbs

Fondant Recipe

Ingredient Quantity
Water 200 ml
Corn Syrup 500 ml
Sugar 2 kg

You can use glucose syrup in place of corn syrup.

Caution: Boiling syrups is incredibly dangerous. Do not do this recipe without prior kitchen experience. An accident could send you to hospital. Ensure you use a minimum 4L pan for this as the foaming stage can get a bit silly. If the syrup goes anything other than very very light tan (normal sugar syrup color) it has caught and needs throwing away.

  1. Dump all ingredients into a 4L pan
  2. High heat - constant stirring to stop it catching
  3. Once boiling, reduce to medium-high heat and continue stirring
  4. Once frothing and foaming - reduce to medium heat and stop stirring once liquid is clear
  5. Once at >115ºC / >240ºF throughout (probe whilst stirring) place pan in sink of cold water to arrest cooking
  6. Leave to cool for 4-5 minutes
  7. Drain sink and leave cold tap running in contact with bottom of pan
  8. Use an electric hand whisk to beat sugar until smooth and white ensuring you have got the bottom and sides of the pan
  9. Leave on the side overnight to cool, or pack into backing paper straight away
  10. If left on the side, it’ll be tough to liberate, but work it with your hands and it’ll come free