fall frame manipulation

[Hayseed]

When is the right time to go completely through a colony and re-arrange frames - if necessary?

Some hives have empty frames on bottom, some filled with honey, some with brood on one side, etc.

Is it worthwhile to re-arrange brood nests, before winter, so they are on the bottom box(es) and surrounded by pollen and honey or doesn't it matter?

Dale

[Michael Bush]

I don't worry about it until after the first hard freeze and then a warm day. Up until then there is usually still nectar and pollen coming in. Once I'm in the fall dearth (because the plants have died from the fronst) I try to get ready for winter. Feed if they are light. Rearrange if they need it. Pull more supers and possibly give them to the lighter hives or harvest them if the bees don't need them.

Then I don't rearrange much. The bees know where they left things and they usually know what they are doing.

[Cam]

So are you saying I should leave my last supers on until the first frost. Then pull them and check the hives for over winter weight and stuff. I was under the impression sometime about the end of September pull everything off. But I don't usually get frost until late October.

Cam

[ August 29, 2006, 01:36 PM: Message edited by: Cam ]

[Tia]

This is my plan. . .tell me if it's okay. They're still bringing nectar in right now, so each hive (7) has 2 supers. The goldenrod is starting to bud and I imagine it'll be in bloom in a week or ten days (if Ernesto doesn't kill it). I don't like goldenrod honey & usually leave that for the girls, so when it starts to bloom, I'll pull the supers. If they are unharvestable (half filled, uncapped, etc.), I'll put them over the inner cover for the girls to clean out and store below for winter. Will that work?

[Michael Bush]

>So are you saying I should leave my last supers on until the first frost. Then pull them and check the hives for over winter weight and stuff.

That's what I'd do. As long as there still might be a flow I don't want them to run out of room. They will backfill the brood nest to shut down the queen's laying.

> I was under the impression sometime about the end of September pull everything off. But I don't usually get frost until late October.

Some people do. Sometimes there's still a flow and they miss it or they actually get an overcrowding swarm in the fall from packing them into too small a space.

[Chef Isaac]

For our area, it is best to go through them a the end of August, latest the first week of september!