A honey super is a box placed above the brood chamber of a hive specifically for honey storage during a nectar flow, and its management directly affects the volume and purity of harvestable honey.
In trade practice
Beekeepers add supers as forage intensifies and remove them once frames are capped, ensuring honey is taken only from super frames rather than brood combs. Mixing brood-comb honey into the harvest risks elevated moisture and off-flavours that buyers detect at intake. For export lots, the number of supers per hive and harvest timing are recorded in apiary logs that support traceability documentation.
In a specification
Purchase specifications for monofloral honey may require that harvest records confirm supers were placed only during the target bloom period, linking apiary logs to the botanical origin claim.