Harvesting/Overwintering

[Tomorrow River Beekeeper]

I'm very new to beekeeping, this is only my first year. I currently have two hives and they seem to be doing well. I'm located in Central, Wisconsin so the winters here can be quite cold. The first question I have is this. I plan on going out today and taking all the supers that are filled and capped. I was going to leave any unfilled/uncapped super frames at the hives and maybe add enough extra frames so they had a one super to work with. Is that resonable? Do most cold climate beekeepers leave a fully capped/filled super on the hive for the winter in addition to the two 2 deep hive bodies or is it better to leave only the 2 deep hive bodies with no super? I have lots of other questions but thought I would start here.

[JohnK and Sheri]

Hello Tomorrow River, or should I say neighbor!
We are not far from you in Owen, WI. Know where that is?
When we wintered in WI ee always wintered in 2 deeps. We left supers on til bout the second week of September, trying to get the goldenrod honey, then fed them back corn syrup, never tried to overwinter with just honey.
If I were you I would take the supers off so they are forced to consolidate the feed in the brood boxes with the goldenrod/aster flow, if there is one this year. Last year there was little after the middle of July or so, too dry. If by the beginning of October they are not heavy enough for winter I would put the feed to them.
Maybe there is a non-commercial operator from the northern tier who is more familiar with winter management with honey than I am. There are beeks from MN who might chime in also.
Again, welcome to the forum.
Sheri

[Michael Bush]

I have had good luck with just two deeps but they need to have stores in them. Since I've gone to all the same sized box it's less complicated. I just leave what the cluster seems to need depending on it's size.

[ August 27, 2006, 07:59 PM: Message edited by: Michael Bush ]

[Finman]

I am here in Finland at the level of Anchorage.

I take all honey away and give 20 kg sugar to 2 deep wintering hive. Part of hives have ne deep. It depends how much bees colony has.

To one deep wintering hive I give syryp as much as it takes.

With sugar colonies survive 9 months from September to the end of May. Apples and dandelions start to bloom at the end of May. Willows start to bloom at the beginning of May.

[carbide]

If you have any frames that have nectar in them that is still uncapped you can put an empty super above the inner cover then put the uncapped frames in a super above the empty one. The bees will treat the uncapped frames as being "out of the hive" and move the uncapped nectar down into the hive bodies. Once all of the nectar is moved down into the hive bodies you can then remove the two now empty supers.

[Mike Gillmore]

You should probably try to have about 90 lbs or so of capped honey stores in the 2 brood boxes for winter.... I believe 12-13 frames would do the trick. A little more would be better... you could always pull any unused frames before the spring flow and extract them if the bees don't need them. Most beekeepers in this area pull all of the supers and leave 2 deeps for winter.