Hi,
Live in SE Wisconsin and looking ahead to the start of fall. Currently have 3 hives, running 2 deeps each with 2 honey supers on each of the 2 stronger hives. About a month ago we spun the honey supers harvesting about 80lbs which was awesome... Afterwards, put the supers back on the hives so the bees would clean em up and start filling again. My plan was to start syrup and leave whatever was produced between now and winter as insurance along with mite management and emergency food etc.
I went down this morning to check and was shocked that one of the supers had almost 8 frames of CAPPED honey with the 2nd super on the same hive almost filled but not yet capped. The 2nd hive had both supers being filled but only a partial frame capped. At this rate we could have 4 full honey supers by mid September!
Now I don't want to be greedy but assuming they have enough stores below, which I believe they do. Should I pull all the supers off for the winter once capped and process again? Or leave one super on each for insurance and then start syrup?
Last year I pulled them off and fed to get them through the winter so if by leaving one on insures I won't need to feed, seems like a better approach.
Love your input, especially if your from the Midwest area!
Live in SE Wisconsin and looking ahead to the start of fall. Currently have 3 hives, running 2 deeps each with 2 honey supers on each of the 2 stronger hives. About a month ago we spun the honey supers harvesting about 80lbs which was awesome... Afterwards, put the supers back on the hives so the bees would clean em up and start filling again. My plan was to start syrup and leave whatever was produced between now and winter as insurance along with mite management and emergency food etc.
I went down this morning to check and was shocked that one of the supers had almost 8 frames of CAPPED honey with the 2nd super on the same hive almost filled but not yet capped. The 2nd hive had both supers being filled but only a partial frame capped. At this rate we could have 4 full honey supers by mid September!
Now I don't want to be greedy but assuming they have enough stores below, which I believe they do. Should I pull all the supers off for the winter once capped and process again? Or leave one super on each for insurance and then start syrup?
Last year I pulled them off and fed to get them through the winter so if by leaving one on insures I won't need to feed, seems like a better approach.
Love your input, especially if your from the Midwest area!