🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[5Australorpasaures]

Doing a Mite chk today as it leaves me time to treat with the Apivar strips before our fall flow. Would rather use Formic Pro but with temps going into the 90sF again I can't.

 

[Sally PB]

Long winded questions here...

We got our first honey harvest this last June. Yay! The hive is set up as: 2 deeps, queen excluder (QE), deep for honey. They are filling the honey super with honey again, and we think it'll be capped and ready in a week or two, so we'll harvest it then. We'll give them those frames back and figure that anything else they make is theirs for the winter.

Question 1: Do we take off the QE to give them more room to build up for the winter?

This hive swarmed several weeks ago, but if I hadn't seen the swarm, we wouldn't have been able to tell when we checked inside. Our hives are 8 frame boxes, and three deep boxes is as high as we want to go, for ease of lifting and inspections, so I'm thinking we don't want to remove the QE. Hubby isn't sure.

Question 2:If we do remove it, how do we turn that box into a honey super next year? That might not be how I should phrase the question, but we want to stay with three deeps, total, for height.

We did not look into the brood boxes. Hubby was having issues with his back. He said he wasn't lifting anything heavier than a frame.

I can see why one of our club members runs all medium boxes! They get HEAVY!

 

[Apis mellifera]

We are definitely in a dearth.

I take it for granted that I get a slowdown in August but not a total dearth. I'm fortunate I rarely have to feed here.

Question 2:If we do remove it, how do we turn that box into a honey super next year?

Beekeepers do things differently, you could ask some club members what they do in your area. Personally, I would extract the deep super and freeze the frames for 48hrs to kill any pests and then store it for next year. Two deeps are fine for overwintering. If your first frost is mid October and by mid September the top deep is light, feed them until its mostly full. With a low mite count, they are set for winter. If the top box is heavy, you can always pull out 4 frames and then take off the deep super.

If you leave a super on for the winter, remove the QE in the fall, just make sure the queen is below that super and then add a QE in the spring. Any brood will emerge, and the bees will backfill with honey.

*Edited, thank you drstratton.

 

[drstratton]

Doing a Mite chk today as it leaves me time to treat with the Apivar strips before our fall flow. Would rather use Formic Pro but with temps going into the 90sF again I can't.

I would also prefer formic when it's time to treat. Hopefully we won't have to treat until after the buckwheat blooms. We're retesting in 2 weeks. Our temps are looking about the same as yours. I hope your count is low.

 

[drstratton]

I take it for granted that I get a slowdown in August but not a total dearth. I'm fortunate I rarely have to feed.

You're fortunate in that.

If you leave a super on for the winter just make sure the queen is below that super and then add a QE. Any brood will emerge, and the bees will backfill with honey.

You're just saying to use the QE until the super is backfilled, but not to leave the QE on through winter, right?
I just watched a video by David Burns, where he touched on this. He said that you don't want a QE on through winter, because the queen will not be able to move up into that box as the colony goes up for resources and she will die from the cold. Some of the bees will stay with her, but not enough for them to survive. Just trying to understand. Thank you.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

On average a good laying queen will fill one side of a deep frame in 3-4 days per side with each frame having roughly 6700 +/- cells x 10. Ten frames will take say 80 days to fill. During that time you will have bees constantly emerging @ 21 days and the queen going back to start all over again. Plenty of winter bees as they live longer than the summer crew. Leaving the excluder on until winter prep has never left me with s shortage of winter bees. Bees are constantly "housekeeping" and will move the food stores as needed. Your stressing, talk to your local club and find what they are doing in your area. Here I run 2 deeps all yr, 1 brood 1 food with the excluder between the 2 and pile the mediums on for extraction. I leave them a full deep of honey for the winter with a feeder with a solid block of sugar, not a fan of dumping dry sugar, for moister absorption and supplemental feed if they should need it. But remember, what works for me here deep in the Pine Barrens of NJ may not work in your local.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

I would also prefer formic when it's time to treat. Hopefully we won't have to treat until after the buckwheat blooms. We're retesting in 2 weeks. Our temps are looking about the same as yours. I hope your count is low.

Getting ready to head out as the temp has risen to 82 and the bees are going to work. Home bodies may be a little testy as we are deep in a dearth.

 

[Apis mellifera]

You're just saying to use the QE until the super is backfilled, but not to leave the QE on through winter, right?

Good catch! You're right. I hit post reply to quickly sometimes. Never leave a QE on for winter. Put the QE back on in spring.

 

[drstratton]

Good catch! You're right. I hit post reply to quickly sometimes. Never leave a QE on for winter. Put the QE back on in spring.

I had a feeling, it was something like that. I do the same thing and then I have to backtrack...lol

 

[drstratton]

On average a good laying queen will fill one side of a deep frame in 3-4 days per side with each frame having roughly 6700 +/- cells x 10. Ten frames will take say 80 days to fill. During that time you will have bees constantly emerging @ 21 days and the queen going back to start all over again. Plenty of winter bees as they live longer than the summer crew. Leaving the excluder on until winter prep has never left me with s shortage of winter bees. Bees are constantly "housekeeping" and will move the food stores as needed. Your stressing, talk to your local club and find what they are doing in your area. Here I run 2 deeps all yr, 1 brood 1 food with the excluder between the 2 and pile the mediums on for extraction. I leave them a full deep of honey for the winter with a feeder with a solid block of sugar, not a fan of dumping dry sugar, for moister absorption and supplemental feed if they should need it. But remember, what works for me here deep in the Pine Barrens of NJ may not work in your local.

Exactly, every area is different. We're planning on using a candy board this winter. We'll feed syrup after the buckwheat bloom until the overnight temps hit 50°. Then we'll add the candy board and with their stores they should be set for winter.