I will be harvesting honey soon. Last year, my first and from packages, everything stayed on the hive and my lone surviving colony had plenty of leftover stores coming out of Winter in double deeps. (the others seem to have died from the cold but had plenty of stores). This Spring, the hive has brought in quite a bit of honey and managed to fill and cap a couple of deeps and mediums . The twist here is that I am harvesting due to the hive being completely honeybound after a split. Rookie mistake. The new queen has emerged, and an additional 2 mediums are being drawn from foundation interspersed with drawn comb. Space in this hive is at a premium. They might still swarm, but I still need to get the honey out even if they do. Basically, I need to reconstruct the hive.
I'm confident enough in determining if a hive has enough stores going into Winter, but now realize that I have no idea of what to do going into Summer. Do I harvest most of the honey but leave sufficient stores in what will be a deep brood box? Or, should I provide an empty deep and leave a drawn medium above? Or perhaps just take all of the honey and let them build up slowly over the summer? There are likely other possibilities, but my lack of experience has me stumped. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Pete
I'm confident enough in determining if a hive has enough stores going into Winter, but now realize that I have no idea of what to do going into Summer. Do I harvest most of the honey but leave sufficient stores in what will be a deep brood box? Or, should I provide an empty deep and leave a drawn medium above? Or perhaps just take all of the honey and let them build up slowly over the summer? There are likely other possibilities, but my lack of experience has me stumped. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Pete