When and what to feed

[simonforeman]

I plan to take off my honey supers this weekend as the honey flow has now come to an end, there's still some coming in and lots of pollen.
So do I need to feed straight away after taking off or wait until later in the autumn? All 3 hives are still laying up all the brood boxes with no signs of slowing down although the weather round here turns cooler from the end of the week.

1. Do I feed straight away or wait ?

2. Do I this early feed 1:1 or 2:1

3. I can wait if it best before taking off honey supers for a week or 2

3. What else should I do as a first time beginner after taking off the supers ready for winter. I know I need to treat for mites....

 

[ianorsven]

Once you have taken your summer honey it is a good time to ***** the varroa levels in your hives and treat accordingly. You should make sure your colonies have enough stores during this period. Do you have any frames of stores in your brood boxes? If not, you can either leave the bees some of the summer honey or feed them - it will not matter too much on the strength - either 1:1 or 2:1. Personally, I do not start feeding for winter stores until early September (depending on local conditions) conditions. I then use 2:1 sugar solution.

 

[simonforeman]

There are stores honey and pollen but there will not be enough for winter after supers removed.... there is also at the moment not enough space to store enough stores for winter due to frames of bias.

 

[REDWOOD]

If your hive is bursting with bees and you remove the supers you will surely have an overcrowded hive unless you put something back on top until the colony starts reducing down in size but personally I think its a tad early.
Do you not have Ivy later?

 

[Swarm]

If your hive is bursting with bees and you remove the supers you will surely have an overcrowded hive unless you put something back on top until the colony starts reducing down in size but personally I think its a tad early.
Do you not have Ivy later?

 

[simonforeman]

I have ivy all around yes. So would you suggest leaving the supers on until they start to reduce in size and or just before the Ivey flow? I'm not in a hurry to take off it's just I have not prepared for winter before and seen here on other threads beeks saying they are taking off and feeding for winter.

 

[Ian123]

hi simon just also consider timing of treatments. if you leave any treatments to late on you are limiting yourself to what you can use plus you need to protect/prevent varroa affecting winter bees so dont leave things to late........