Overwintering question

[enrico]

I disagree with this. I keep mine on 14x12s. I was also told they don’t need a super on over winter. SOME 14x12s may not need a super, but if you have a large colony there is not enough room for them to have enough winter stores In the brood box. I leave a super on over winter and I put it underneath. Most of the time it is empty come spring, they may have moved it up, but there’s not that much left in the brood box for them to move back to the super later in the spring. Putting it under the brood usually means the queen doesn’t lay in it And I have an empty super ready for the spring flow.

But if you don't need it and they don't use the honey in the brood box you will have brood in it in the spring! Swings and roundabouts

 

[Erichalfbee]

I disagree with this. I keep mine on 14x12s. I was also told they don’t need a super on over winter. SOME 14x12s may not need a super, but if you have a large colony there is not enough room for them to have enough winter stores In the brood box.

If you have had bees starve without a super I don’t blame you putting one on. I just make sure my broods do have enough stores. Having taken out Apivar a couple of days ago there are bees in every seam but the boxes are heavy. I routinely take one or two frames of stores out every spring.

 

[B_north]

I was taught to take off all the extra frames and leave only the main brood box when starting to feed. That way they backfill as the queen shuts down laying and they fill and cap the frames in the brood box with honey first.
After the main box is full then put on upper feed.

If the top box is on when fall feeding they may start filling at the top and work their way down leaving the main brood box without enough. This could possibly result in starvation if a cold snap prevents them from moving across an area down in the brood box that they may not have had time to fill and cap.

 

[plain_hunt]

But if you don't need it and they don't use the honey in the brood box you will have brood in it in the spring! Swings and roundabouts

I have only had brood in the nadired super twice in 10 years. I think the queen stays up because it is warmer, but that is only my thoughts. The two times I've had brood in the super wasn’t a lack of space in the brood box, she’d done a lovely egg shaped brood patch covering both boxes.

 

[enrico]

I have only had brood in the nadired super twice in 10 years. I think the queen stays up because it is warmer, but that is only my thoughts. The two times I've had brood in the super wasn’t a lack of space in the brood box, she’d done a lovely egg shaped brood patch covering both boxes.

That is because they have used all the food in the super and moved up as the food stores diminish but ...... I was making the point that if you over feed and by the end of the winter the brood box is full of stores then you WILL get brood in the nadired box. You are doing it correctly. Not all people do! That was my point!

 

[Ian123]

If people just ran the partially capped/filled frames through the extractor after a quick shake test, they’d save themselves a lot of agroif there was even any concern to a higher water content just save the last bucket for themselves.

 

[enrico]

If people just ran the partially capped/filled frames through the extractor after a quick shake test, they’d save themselves a lot of agroif there was even any concern to a higher water content just save the last bucket for themselves.

That is what I do now and then feed it back to the bees for winter feed. So simple. Got fed up of it fermenting when I kept it for my own use!