[karenarnett]

I could use some advice as to how much space to give the bees now. Goldenrod flow is just starting, with aster not far behind. I am trying to condense my colonies to about 1deep and 1medium for brood nest for overwintering. Or possibly even just 1 deep with honey stored above. I'm having a hard time figuring out how much space to give them now. I don't want them to be packing in nectar to the brood nest because of lack of space above. But I also don't want to give too much space this time of year. 7 of my 8 colonies have QEs on still. There's a fair amount of honey above the QEs on most because we never really went into a dearth, but kept a trickle of nectar going all summer thanks to enough rain. I could almost harvest a couple of full boxes.

So...here's a specific: one colony has two almost full supers above QE, and are storing some honey in the medium directly below the QE, leaving a single deep brood nest. Where would be a good place to add more space, given that we are going to have some fall flow?

Thanks for advice. I'm managing my hives more closely this year than in previous decade, so I've never really made these kinds of decisions before.

 

[AR Beekeeper]

If you have been keeping records you will know the average amount of honey that will be stored during your fall flow. If you want to harvest the honey and feed for the winter stores give the space as usual in the surplus honey supers. If you don't want to feed then don't add supers and let the bees store the fall honey below in the deep and the medium that you will overwinter in.

I don't know when your area experiences shutdown of brood rearing. Here, the winter bees will be made in September and October. I like to have 4 to 6 deep frames with brood in them until the last half of October when I feed for winter. I must feed winter stores because I have no fall flow in my location. I like 8 deep frames fully covered with adult bees going into winter when using a single deep, or a deep and a medium, and allowing 4 to 6 mostly empty frames in the deep for the queen to lay in during September/early October provides those adults. I use Russians and they usually handle these details themselves.

 

[kilocharlie]

It has long been advised to set up U.S. standard Langstroth hives as 2 deeps (9-11/16ths inch) and one super (6-11/16ths inch) and get it up to 130 lbs or better for Winter. USE A SCALE.

Southern states will often get away with a lot less, but why risk it? Cincinnatti isn't exactly a Southern place the snow birds head to, is it? You're gonna split them up in January into 7-frames of bees increasers right before almond pollination anyways (if you run enough bees to make the trip, that is...)

 

[Gray Goose]

I could use some advice as to how much space to give the bees now. Goldenrod flow is just starting, with aster not far behind. I am trying to condense my colonies to about 1deep and 1medium for brood nest for overwintering. Or possibly even just 1 deep with honey stored above. I'm having a hard time figuring out how much space to give them now. I don't want them to be packing in nectar to the brood nest because of lack of space above. But I also don't want to give too much space this time of year. 7 of my 8 colonies have QEs on still. There's a fair amount of honey above the QEs on most because we never really went into a dearth, but kept a trickle of nectar going all summer thanks to enough rain. I could almost harvest a couple of full boxes.

So...here's a specific: one colony has two almost full supers above QE, and are storing some honey in the medium directly below the QE, leaving a single deep brood nest. Where would be a good place to add more space, given that we are going to have some fall flow?

Thanks for advice. I'm managing my hives more closely this year than in previous decade, so I've never really made these kinds of decisions before.

Hi Karenarnett, I am a bit north of you, so I need a bit more winter stores. For first year Hives I am trying to use medium, deep , medium, For second year Hives I use deep, deep, medium. you did not specifically state but are the honey frames in the supers , Brood capable? meaning Worker size cells?

the first super I give is normally frames of Brood size cells, then the FL or Drone size, in the next supers. Then if I need to leave it the configuration has been pre selected.

If you are going to try the deep , medium, for over wintering, then take the rest of the honey soon, and let them get the nest "winter ready" Here I am doing, or have done this set up already. I like to give them a month to propolize and set the nest up, and not crack them open then till march. Also be sure to not had the excluder in below the medium in case the cluster moves up and leaves the queen behind.

So If I was in your specific place with your specific question, I would take the excluder off the deep , go thru the 2 supers, take 1 super of capped to extract, leave the partially capped frames in the medium directly over the deep to be finished off and capped for winter stores. taking into consideration which frames have worker size cells, I would not leave the drone cell size honey unless it is all drone size then your options are limited.
IF In your opinion the 1 medium is more than needed or is all full, Or the deep is really full once you get into the hive, one could also as an option extract 4 frames from the super staying for winter, and put the wet frames back for the "storage room " you describe, in positions 1,2,9,10 if you have a 10 frame box, IE leave the honey centered place the wet extracted on the outsides. I would think 4 frames would suffice for storage yet for this season.

Another option if the deep is really packed, is to extract the entire 2 supers, and Place 1 under the deep, for space. How ever you go Ideally the top is all honey by winter and the empty frames are all at the bottom.

GG