Hi Folks,
Here's the situation - I have an 8 frame hive with 2 deep hive bodies and 2 shallow, with medium and deep size frames in the top shallow boxes. This leaves a gap of about 3" between the honey supers and the top of the 3 medium frames in the brood boxes. The bees have drawn out the 3 medium frames and continued building comb on the bottom of the frames, reaching down to the lower frames in the brood box. The other 5 deep frames have starter strips and the bees are just starting to work on them. The 3 medium frames are 1/2 full of capped honey and about 1/4 full of nectar.
Should I remove the top boxes, condensing the hive for winter or leave it as is - hoping I can feed them enough to fill the space ? I'm worried about the extra space adding to cold & moisture issues.
Thanks in advance for any help. This forum has been very helpful.
Nardi
What's that, 6-8 lbs. Of food versus open cold space?
They'll never be able to bridge that gap to get to the honey in the first place, second you'll won't be able to put sugar on them if you need to.
I'd trim back to the 2 deeps with deep frames only & feed so they can build up. having wrong size frames in those other boxes gives them some odd bee space to fill in & eventually that hive will be unmanageable. you can trim off the excess comb on the other frames & save them or give them back ( in the right size boxes ) to the bees this winter if they need the honey. when does the weather turn bad in new Hampshire?