Winter preparation

[Jonathan01]

I understand that the whole of the summer season is preparation time for the winter, but that assumes we don't take the honey. I am beginning to remove supers from the hives and not replacing them. I want the bees to start filling the brood box with winter stores, so that they can go through winter in a single brood box. Could I be starting this winter preparation too soon? I would hate to go the other way and have the brood box 'honey-bound' and there being no space for the queen to lay eggs of bees of winter physiology. In cases where a hive has limited space in the brood box, I have left a 'wet super' on the hive and removed the queen excluder - so one or two hives will go in brood and a 1/2, but most I am hoping will go through in a single brood. I live in the north of England and the flow is till going, we will also have ivy nectar going into Autumn. What are you doing?

 

[drdrday]

Down south here I won't be starting winter preps until the end of this month. I'll be getting a start on OA vaping just before August is over, but it will be September before I start reconfiguring hives for winter or even taking the last supers off. My hives are on double brood, and stay like that over winter, so I really just dummy them down with a couple of insulated dummy frames.

 

[REDWOOD]

You don’t want to get ivy honey in your supers as it will go solid virtually straight away and a bugger to remove if they haven’t eaten it in the spring.
Its all weather dependant, a prolific colony can consume a super a week this time of year. Keep doing your weekly inspections and make sure bees have enough stores and access the brood size, this will give you an indication on the bees readiness for winter.
Removing all the supers too soon can over crowd the BB which can trigger swarm mode
Keep an eye on your bees and they will tell you

 

[madasafish]

Having extracted, I reduce my hives to 1 super. I overwinter them in that state with no QE. Lots of space for honey: flows from now on are weak here (ivy far too late to worry about)

 

[user 819]

I have no issue with ivy honey left in spring, it will be stored and reused again either in winter or during a dearth.

 

[LeaBees]

Having extracted, I reduce my hives to 1 super. I overwinter them in that state with no QE. Lots of space for honey: flows from now on are weak here (ivy far too late to worry about)

Do you leave that one super on while you treat for varroa (assuming you treat...) ? Any issues with reusing the super next season in that case?

 

[madasafish]

Do you leave that one super on while you treat for varroa (assuming you treat...) ? Any issues with reusing the super next season in that case?

Yes: treat with on.
The bees will empty them of honey over winter and next year clean the cells before use - so no issues.

A BI tested my honey in 2017 - I follow same routine every year - and found no residues to comment on.

 

[Wilco]

EMA concluded there is minimal contamination of honey with OA following sublimation as levels are within what would naturally be found in honey anyway.

 

[LeaBees]

Yes: treat with on.
The bees will empty them of honey over winter and next year clean the cells before use - so no issues.

A BI tested my honey in 2017 - I follow same routine every year - and found no residues to comment on.

Would it matter the treatment used? Say Apiguard or Apivar strips versus OA sublimation ?

 

[madasafish]

OA sublimation will require 4 treatments 5 days apart. PIA.

Apart from that...minimal.