I pulled a few hundred pounds of honey last weekend and put the supers back on above the inner cover for cleanup, or left ones on that were nearly full, but not capped. The bees quickly went back to work rebuilding the comb and re-filling with nectar. I don't even think the quantity of bees would compact into my 2-deep brood chambers if I tried. Now they are back at 2 deeps, 2 mediums and full of bees. What is the harm of leaving the supers on for another week or 2 to get everything capped and let their numbers dwindle a little? We usually get our first frost by the end of September, but daytime temps should stay in the 60's+ through September.
there's no harm. you just want to pull those in time to do one last good check and give them time to seal things up. i pulled 3 supers today and will take the last off tomorrow. it's dry here and no flow. last year i didn't pull them until mid September.
I'm not sure what they are getting, but there are still lots of flowers and weeds blooming in my yard...so they must be finding something...it has been a strange summer and we never really got the consistently hot July and August that we usually get, which would have pushed things to flower and dry out then.
I think I will go throught them again this weekend and try to pull capped and consolidate uncapped and see if I can start condensing the bees down.
Sorry, don't mean to hijack the thread, but I'm new to beekeeping and am in your area (La Grande, OR). I'm just wondering if you could give me an idea about how you prep to overwinter your bees up in Coeur d'Alene. How much honey do you leave for them. Do you try to give them 2 deeps for brood plus some honey? Thanks for any help!
No problem, I winter them in 2 deeps, with the top one full of honey. With the mild winter last year, they had plenty left over in spring. If they need more stores, I shuffle frames or feed 2:1 as long as I can. The biggest problem I have found with the winters, is not the food stores it is the moisture. Last year I switched gears on my plan from upper venting to upper insulation, lower venting (SBB with tray in) and it worked much better. I had hives with several different set ups to figure out what worked best for me. Finsky clued me in on the upper insulation and it worked much better than a vent, but you have to check on them when you can.