Over Wintered Honey

[belt152]

Hi,

I currently have 2 hives with double deep broods. I left each with a medium super of honey for the winter. I checked the hives this week and both are busy and full of bees. My question is what should I do with the leftover honey in the super? Is the honey still good for extraction? If so I plan on extracting and putting the drawn comb back on. Is this a wise idea or do you think the honey would have crystallized over the winter?

Thanks!

[kc in wv]

I would leave it on myself. Consider this, you probably have another 3 or 4 weeks until the first major nectar flow for your area. That would probably be the fruit bloom and is a good one for build up. Then there is also the possibility of a killing freeze like we have had for 3 of the last 2 years.

When the bee's start making surplus honey, hopefully from tulip poplar and locust, it will be fresh. Fresh honey has a better appeal to buyers than old honey.

Another factor is if you did any fall treating with teramicyn or anything else, the residue will be in the honey.

On a side note I was in your area last week with a friend.

[belt152]

Hi KC,

Thanks for the info. I have not treated my hives and they are doing really well as of today. I did my spring inspection and both haves have a great number of bees. I switched the upper and lower brood boxes and decided to add supers to each.

I'm still unsure of what to do with the full mediums I left for overwintering. They are full. You say to leave the supers on and harvest any surplus honey made this summer. Will the original super no crystallize? If not can I leave this super on all summer and use for next winters food stores?

The scratched some of the caps while inspecting and the honey looks great. Wouldn't I want this years honey left for overwintering?

Thanks,
Chris

[vajerzy]

I'm feeding my excess to the bees.

I have a surplus of honey from 2 supers; one from a hive that's still alive and one from a dead out. On the live hive (2 brood chambers), I opened some frames from the super with a cappings scratcher to expose the honey; the bees are taking it and either eating it or storing it downstairs. I hived 2 packages yesterday and next week I will place a super on each with some full frames scratched for them to eat, along with the sugar water I'm feeding them.