[Hogback Honey]

So, when winter rolls around, and I button them up for winter, if I leave all the honey for the bees, how do I get the honey from the supers to the bees? :s

(1) Leave the supers on, including them in the wrap?

(2) Take supers off when full, and put them back on in the fall so the bees can move the honey down into the brood boxes, then remove the supers?

Thanks all, cant think of any other questions right now.

P.S. I left QX's off, figured if she layed in the super it wouldn't matter, since I am not harvesting.

 

[Bees In Miami]

I am not asking this to be wise, but do you have a real 'winter'? I don't know California at all, but sometimes things are much different for southern and western states. What is your weather during 'winter'?

 

[Hogback Honey]

Snow, 0 to -5 at night, some days don't get over 20 degrees. Snow, usually, never gets over 3 feet. And then it varies from year to year. Last year only snowed once, very little rain, but got good and cold. Year before snowed a lot, snowed, then rained, then snowed some more.
October is a pretty nice month, then November is when it starts getting cold.

 

[Beeonefarms]

my 2 cents is if you remove them to put them on later they will just move up into the honey stores as food is depleted in the brood area

 

[RayMarler]

I would just leave them on, and when the time comes, wrap the whole hive up as one unit for winter. The bees will move up into the supers as needed for feeding. I like to have an empty drawn frame in the center of each box as it gives the bees cluster space to move up into the honey during winter.