> ...or anyone who saw the palletized 10 hive arrangement elaborate
> a bit more on how the supers were situated. Did I understand that the
> supers were common to all 10 colonies? I'm curious about how this
> arrangement was done. It sounds extremely efficient.

Yes.  I'll try to handle this.  The reason I thought there might be eight hives
rather than the ten is that I remember the huge supers on top and thought that
they must cover four hives each, not recalling thta they actually extended
halfway onto the centre hives.  I do recall Babe saying that there were ten
hives though.  I think I took pictures and that might help - later.

Anyhow, the ten hives consist all of a standard and a medium (or two standards
on some pallets) with an excluder on each.  They are in two rows of five each
facing east or west.  They are strapped together with a steel strap like a belt
that goes around the ten hives, and 8" X 2" X 25"  angle pieces are used
vertically on each corner both corner brood boxes are restrained by the one
strap.   The idea is to keep them together on the pallet and to make it harder
for bears.  Steel screening is added for when the hives are in real bear
country.

On top of the excluders go the two supers.  They are each half the length of the
whole thing, and the full width of the pallet and have a centre rib with two
rabbets running lengthwise so that normal medium depth frames hang in there.
More of these large supers can be stacked on in season, and then two telescoping
lids that fit the supers go on top. The bees from all the ten hives can blend
above the individual excluders, since the supers cover four full hives and two
half hives each, so what we have in effect is a horizontal ten queen hive!

The supers each have cleats so that a rope sling can lift them.  Thus the whole
super can be lifted by a crane and swung to one side to be blown out onto the
ground before riding home.

Babe's uses a Hiab mounted on the back of a tandem truck to lift the pallets and
the supers.  they have two such trucks, I believe.

allen
-----
See if your questions have been answered in over a decade of discussions.
BEE-L archives & more: http://listserv.albany.edu/archives/bee-l.html
Search sci.agriculture.beekeeping at http://www.deja.com/
or visit http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee to access both on the same page.