Too take or not to add or not

[Bakerbee]

Hi after years of wantingthem my husband doing the course few years back and me saturating myself in all things bees we are unsure what to do this autumn.we got our hive in aug from chap giving up. We have BB on bottom with outta frames stores inner frames brood. On top we have a super full bar outta frame of capped and uncapped honey, plus some sugar syrup we have fed in prep for winter. So many people write conflicting advice. Should we add another super to avoid swarm? Are we in a happy place for winter? Should we remove super and extract. Also im in south england with fair weather atm about 14c day dropping to 8c at night. And our hive size is commercial. Cheers for any feedback.

 

[PaulCarroll]

The first priority for you is to establish the state of your colony. By that I mean does it have a functioning Queen? Is there any brood or larvae evident in terms of providing your winter bees? What is the position in regard to stored food for the colony to survive over the winter? Are there sufficient bees to realistically get the colony with Queen through the winter? Your best bet would be to join your local Beekeeping association, see whether you can get a mentor to assist you in analysing your current position and helping you ready your colony for winter. Like you I live in the South (East) of England, but I always plan on ensuring all my colonies are prepared and wrapped up for the winter before the clocks change and that does not allow you much time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[JWF]

Personally I would leave it in its current arrangement (BB below, super on top) but remove the queen excluder to make sure that the colony can access all their stores throughout the winter without leaving the queen behind, as she'll die.

But you could remove the super and feed, as you should be able to get enough stores into a commercial brood box for overwintering.

There you go - one beekeeper, two opinions

 

[Quis Custodiet]

If, as has been suggested there is a queen excluder in place, remove it. Treat for varroa and then leave them be.

 

[Bakerbee]

Thanks for the advice. Queen is present and doing her job. My hive is full with good amount of bees. QE has been removed and we have a bee quilt ready and waiting to pop on when temps drop to avoid moisture problems. So think im in pretty good shape for winter. Sorry i didnt mention all these points in first post. So much conflicting dos and donts. I think im going to leave the super on so bees have plenty of stores for winter. We have contacted local bee group ,as thats where course was done ,they just havent got back to us yet and thought seeking advice here in meantime might help.

 

[Poly Hive]

Don't recognise outta for a start. Outer possibly?

As you have mixed syrup with the honey yes Q ex off and put the super below the BB. If you leave it above then you will have a super full of brood in the spring as the Q will start at the top (warmest) and work down.

They will not swarm now at this late date. Your reading should have assured you of that.

Treat for varroa and feed and relax and maybe some more reading over the wither to get organised for swarming next season. Oh and that will mean more kit to acquire and prep.

PH

 

[For want of a better word]

Grandad ran Commercials... he would leave a super on top when feeding, and left it there all Winter... never used queen excluders as he thought that they damaged the workers wings.
Said he wanted the queen and her brood in the top box in the Spring so that he could remove and replace all the nasty infected black brood frames.
That was half a century ago.

I don't think it really matters to the bees!

Yeghes da