Winter Food Stores

[smac101]

I am a first year beekeeper and inspected my hive the on the 10th of November. Everything looks fine, I replaced my top feeder with the inner cover and allowed space for venting. Almost all of the frames are full of brood, honey and pollen, total weight is approximately 100lbs; Both hive bodies weighing 5o lbs each. Is this enough stores to get the colony thru the winter or should I continue to feed.

I am using the "unlimited brood nest" method and the top hive body has a scant amount of stores, no brood. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

Sean

[Michael Bush]

I don't live in West Virginia, so I'm not so sure of the climate there, but I wouldn't be afraid of a hive going into winter with that amount of stores here and I think it's milder there. I might pull the top box if it's mostly empty though.

[fat/beeman]

hello
one thing to think about is moisture and in your climate. feeding makes moisture when bees condasate the feed.
I used to live in ohio and found lot of dead bees in a hive that got wet from he moisture. I think you have lotof stores and would take the extra super off so you don't get heat losses.
good luck Don

[smac101]

Michael, Don
Thanks for the info, I moved the inner cover down to the top of the 2nd hive body and left two frames centered inside the 3rd hive body and place it on top of the inner cover. The cover is in place and I will allow some ventilation through the 3rd hive body. I estimated the weight of the two hive bodies at 90 to 100lbs.

There were only a few bees in the top body Sunday when I rearranged things, and several were out and about. It was sunny and almost made 60 degrees here in Huntington WV. Looking forward to spring and next years honey!

Thanks and take care

Sean