So I am sending my bees down into the deeps for the winter and I have a question.
I have two supers on my hive and do not use queen excluders. As I began to push the bees down with an escape board, I came to notice that I have a fair amount of capped brood in my supers.
What should I do?
Leave the supers on for awhile and let it hatch (letting the weather get colder as well)?
Ignore it and push the bees down, letting the brood die?
Will it impact my hive's chance of survival in the winter if I let the brood die?
Is it a moot point?
i would let it hatch. if it's capped you are only talking about a little time and we are not so cold yet that you would harm the hive by waiting a bit. i'd get the queen down so that there is no more brood laid in the supers. use an excluder after you are SURE you have her down. you'll want that brood to help your hives get through the winter.
I would sort it out and brush the bees off the honey as you go and put the honey in a box with a lid as you go. Leave the brood on the hive.
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Take honey frames off and extract the honey.
Put super (medium size) with brood and pollen frames to lowest box.
In spring you get the super away cleaned.
When i play with unlimited brood area, in summer I use 3 langstroth brood boxes.
In main yield when ventilation is high, the queen leave the lowest box and use 2. And 3 box.
Thanks for the info, all.
Is it safe to assume that if I harvested the honey (crush and strain on plastic frames) and left the brood frames alone, they would hatch and the queen would be done laying? Or is she still going to continue for some time?
I will try to find her and send her down below, using excluders regardless.