Hello from Northeast Alabama

**akca** · 10-18-2010, 09:42 AM

First year beekeeping. From the books I've read and videos watched, the bees seem normal. Hive is full of bees and I have one super on top that now has about 6 frames full of honey. Should I take the super off for winter and extract the honey or leave it on with the honey since its the first year?

Thanks for your advise.

**AmericasBeekeeper** · 10-18-2010, 12:03 PM

If you must, take a frame for your self. You will have to feed them sugar syrup if you do. The bees need all that and probably a little more if it is as cold as last year. They convert sugar to heat. If they do not have enough to eat they freeze and starve at the same time.

**akca** · 10-23-2010, 08:13 AM

Thanks. I've decided to just leave the honey for the bees this year. I have been reading other post on the forum and seems I should remove the excluder to allow the queen to move up?

I plan to find a club or association to join by spring to learn more. I spoke with a beekeeper a few months back who has about 40 years experience, but at the time I had limited questions for him due to limited knowledge of what I got into. He said the best advise he could give was to allow bees to do what bees do. So far, the bees seem to be doing that..