Last week here in Northern Illinois it got up into the 60's so I decided to but my honey supers on the hive to clean them up. When I knew the temp was going to drop I went to pull them off. I did have sucess except for 1 hive, so I decided to wait untill the next day assuming they would go back down when the temp dropped. That never happend & now it's cold & the bees are still toward the top of the hive. Do I watch & wait hoping they will go back down?
I had a similar problem. Because of a health problem I could not remove the supers. when the temp dropped so did the bees,and I had my son remove the supers. Where in Northern Illinois are you? I live in Rockton.
I live in Sleepy Hollow. Supposed to hit near 40 tomorrow, I'll take a peek & see if they are down.
Wait for a fairly warm day-40's-or at least sunny and shake the bees out of the super if they're still there. If they don't go down they will soon use up the excess honey from cleaning the super and the starve with the rest of the hive full of honey.
Would it work if you took the super and and slipped it underneath the hive?
Then they would move up when they finished off the honey or sooner.
Paul
I might work, but think of the extra space the bees have to keep warm and how that will impact your stores. The more they have to use the sooner it's gone.