Recent nuc and super frames

[louiseww]

My Nucleus of bees which I acquired mid June has drawn out and filled two frames of honey in the super. I plan to leave this for them over the winter (is that best?) but should I remove the QE now or later? Thanks

 

[Vortex]

Yes and Yes - 2 frames in super is approx 6lbs of honey - recommended over-wintering stock for an average colony is 30-40lbs honey.
A standard national frame(capped) is about 6lbs and a 14x12 is about 9lbs

 

[MuswellMetro]

My Nucleus of bees which I acquired mid June has drawn out and filled two frames of honey in the super. I plan to leave this for them over the winter (is that best?) but should I remove the QE now or later? Thanks

first yes for them to use it with the queen you must remove the QeX but i do not like stores in super above brood as bee rareley use them until spring ,if at all

if you want to let them have it rather than extyract, then briuse vthe capping and place above the crown feeder hole in spteber , or do the same but put the super below the brood..bees will move it to the brood box

 

[Polyanwood]

It is best for the bees to have the smallest volume of air to heat as possible. This maximises thier chance of surviving the Winter. I advise that either you feed them back that honey by putting a crown board between the super and the brood box, and usually they will empty the super and store it in the brood box - or take the honey off for yourself... even if it isn't capped you could cook blackberries in it. Mmmm.

 

[Mike a]

My Nucleus of bees which I acquired mid June has drawn out and filled two frames of honey in the super. I plan to leave this for them over the winter (is that best?) but should I remove the QE now or later? Thanks

I would disagree it is unlikely they will fill the super enough to make it worth keeping on the hive. It would be better to remove the QE now to see if they make any effort to draw out the majority of the remaining super frames before the end of August and start to fill them or imho it would be better to remove the super then and allow the colony to start back filling the empty brood chamber frames with nectar and keep the hive space condensed to one chamber to reduce the amount of internal area to keep warm.

The tricky part is judging when the weather will turn, the quantity of autumn forage in your area and how much the colony are able to collect, convert and store. Its far too early to judge at the moment but as we are fast approaching September when most beeks start to gauge if and when they need to feed to build up enough stores for winter.
Last year caught out a lot of beeks myself included who fed and treated their colonies as per the books only to find the season was extended by 2 months so they stopped feeding and we had the worst winter for a very long time. Thankfully I had two spare brood frames worth of stores in reserve I could swap in for empty frames and I gave them fondant as an added insurance which saved one of my colonies before the freeze started as it was too cold to feed them sugar water when the weather turned.

 

[louiseww]

Thanks Mike - As a new beek this is a bit confusing for me. If I remove the QE would they build brood in the supers and does it matter. I am more keen to do what is best for the bees rather than nick their honey!! The brood box is doing well, lots of heavy frames of honey stores but also lots of brood.
Or should I remove this frames and store them for later in the year for them? How do I store them?
Thanks, Louise

 

[Poly Hive]

Take out the excluder Louise and let them do what they want. The more bees they produce the better the chances of the colony surviving the winter which is now what we all should be bending our thoughts towards.

PH

 

[oliver90owner]

I overwinter on single 14 x 12s with OMF.

That is equivalent to a brood and a half.

I would be removing the QE, but more likely the end of the month at honey harvest. I would be considering what stores were available between your two colonies and progressing from there.

If leaving full and capped frames (well, any stores) at that stage, I would be juggling them around to fit in varroa treatment and then marking them (before feeding), so they could be recovered in the spring, if not used (or required) by ensuring they would not get mixed up with any sugar-honey stores added later, to completely fill the super for winter.

Remember you have two colonies. Remember it is easier to manage two than one, so don't think of each hive in isolation. You have rather more options than those with only the one colony! Use them to your (and the bees') advantage.

Regards, RAB