Since beekeepers in my area say they go into winter with only double deeps on their hives, I have researched that you should go into winter with at least 100 pounds of stores for my area. If a deep runs about 40lb each, thats 80 pounds. Why wouldn't one go into winter with 3 deeps 120lb and in the spring either split or remove one of the deeps?
My configuration right now is double deeps with at least 1 shallow super on each (total of 3 boxes). Beekeepers say to take the shallow off because you don't want the colony to move up to the super during the spring. We still have nectar flow with goldenrod coming in and I'm afraid by the looks of it that I'm going to have an extra shallow super (total of 2 supers) by the end of fall.
Do I take the supers off (store the frames in the freezer), extract what I have in them until I get down to my double deeps, or leave the two supers on for the winter?
My configuration right now is double deeps with at least 1 shallow super on each (total of 3 boxes). Beekeepers say to take the shallow off because you don't want the colony to move up to the super during the spring. We still have nectar flow with goldenrod coming in and I'm afraid by the looks of it that I'm going to have an extra shallow super (total of 2 supers) by the end of fall.
Do I take the supers off (store the frames in the freezer), extract what I have in them until I get down to my double deeps, or leave the two supers on for the winter?