Debra Sharpe wrote:

>  I cannot move the top super as one unit
> since it is about 70 lbs so I use another hive body and transfer half
> the capped honey fames into it and then remove the super which is now about
> 40 lbs to check on the brood frames below.

Debra,
I will try to beat George Imire in suggesting you shift to mediums and
forget the tripod. I strained my back moving deeps in the fall and that
convinced me to shift, which I am in the process of doing.

There are other tricks in manipulating deep supers, such as tilting them
and sliding things like a screened bottom underneath. But that requires
at least three arms and Murphy's Law immediately commes into effect so
you are likely to end up with horizontal hives and very unhappy bees.
Another is to have a cart or platform by the hive so there is less
lifting and more moving, which is what I do. But that still ends up with
a load on your back, even though there is little bending and mostly
swinging.

There are commercial lifters as well as do-it-yourself tripods that you
can fashion, but with only a couple of hives, it is easier to just shift
to mediums. You can do as many do and have all mediums for both brood
and honey supers. Or you can have the mediums for brood and shallow
supers for honey, to reduce the lifting load. Supers get heavy too, and
you will be moving them when they are full more than the brood boxes,
which are normally moved in spring and are much lighter than in the
fall.

Hope this helps.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, ME