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Surplus honey

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Vance G 
#1 ·
I went out and checked my hives today and noticed that the extra hive bodies I have above my two deeps that I'm using as a brood nest have surplus honey, however, the broods nest themselves only have two or three frames of honey each typically on the outer edges of the hives. This makes sense given that the queen needs an area to lay. If I'm going to take whatever is above the second deep as the surplus for me when do the bees back-fill the brood nest with honey? I'm guessing on the fall flow and if that's the case should I pull my supers before the fall flow? I believe it's in late September early October here, so should I pull my honey in early September?

I was originally going to harvest the first week in October, but my concern is if I go out and take all of the supers off in early October and all of the supers all full but the broods nest is empty, or very nearly so, will I be unintentionally taking all of their winter stores?
 
#3 ·
I pull supers in August so the bees fill the brood nests for winter with the last of the flow. I take a WAG as to when. You need to find someone local for that information. Sometimes I guess wrong and then I feed til the two deeps and bees weigh at least 130 pounds. If you end up feeding, do it as early as possible.
 
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