End of flow signs/actions

[LeaBees]

Bearing in mind this is 1st season… when main flow ends will the bees start tucking into the supers? What are the key signs to look for? And should boxes (or individual frames) be removed to avoid this?

 

[drex]

Bees need carbohydrate throughout the year. If you take any stores off you must ensure there is still enough food left for them, at least until your next look in. The flow does not just suddenly stop, it slows down and then they might move onto other sources or you might even have to feed . Your first season, so the bees have probably not produced vast amounts, but you will want some of your first ever honey. . I do not extract until mid to late August, depending on weather. As soon asc rop comes off I start varroa treatment, which is more important to me than the amount of honey I get.
Before taking any you need to check it is ready - is water content low enough - the shake test or refractometer. I put the bees needs ahead of my own.
Sorry I have not given a direct answer but there is not one

 

[REDWOOD]

Main crop with me is just starting so some boxes will come off for extraction and then returned.
if you have a few supers on a hive and suddenly they are removed where are all those bees going to go, think they might get a little crowded.
Mid September ill remove all the boxes just in time for the Ivy flow which will see them through the winter.

 

[user 819]

Most BB will have some stores on the end two or three frames as well as possibly an arc of honey or maybe on the frames edges, if the BB is wall to wall brood then they should be on double brood with stores above. I very rarely leave a super of stores for them in to late Autumn, once the summer crop is taken and suppers reduced the colony size slowly retracts and stores will be laid up where they want them in the BB/s. I do leave any partial supers with stores above as there is always the ivy to come and excess can go up top but this comes off by late Oct and I never feed late end of summer into Autumn when any supers are on as they may well put it up there.

I have some sealed supers now being cleared to remove late tomorrow or Saturday and a few supers plus BB supers not capped yet but getting close.
My long hive has suddenly had a good influx of forage and I have 6 or 7 deep frames of store that can be harvested.

 

[Ian123]

Flows can and do come to a complete stop it only takes a change in the weather and this is the uk! Big colonies can also eat through your honey crop. If necessary you can judge when to remove stores and provide a little feed if required. In normal years flows dwindle off if the weather remains reasonable there’s enough about to keep hives ticking over, in my locations anyway!

 

[Michael Palmer]

When the bees begin coating the cell walls and cell rims of the unfilled honey combs with propolis, it’s a pretty good bet the flow has ended