Feeding old frames of honey in mid winter

[Koala John]

Hi all,
It's mid winter here in Australia, though our average maximum temp through the day is a pleasant 60 degrees F.
I have four good healthy hives in an inner city location, wintering very well in double eight frame boxes. The bees are bringing in pollen and foraging on days when it's not too wet or windy.

I have a few boxes of old honey, low quality but from healthy hives, and not something I want to extract or eat myself. I would like to feed them back to the bees, preferably now, so I have empty frames ready for Spring. I am thinking about putting one or two frames out in a sheltered location near the hives every few days for the bees to rob them.

What do you think, would you do that?
Thanks in advance,
John.

[MacfromNS]

I think that would work just fine. I have done it before.

[atthelake22]

Hello there,
YES after we had put the extra frames of honey left from the spring into the freezer until we thought they might need it ( i live in southern ohio USA and it gets VERY COLD here in the winter but there are a few days that warm up enough to just tilt the lid and inner cover and put in a few frames that we saved and of course got to room temperature before inserting) and it really seemed to please and help the bees out. We didn't loose one box last year at all, and have been doing that very same thing for 2 years now with great success. We were fortunate enough to have a very warm 70 degree day in January, unusual for our area and we scrambled to get in the box and took out the empty honey frames and put in the ones we had brought to room temp into their place and it sure seemed to help them...we made sure to mark which ones came from which boxes and not sure that matters after being in the freezer but made us feel better knowing they were getting the exact honey they had gathered all the previous spring,summer or fall depending on when we pulled the extra honey frame to keep them from getting honey bound......so yes...i think they'd love the treat! BUT I AM A NEWBIE Compared to all the knowledge on here so hold on for an answer from the great beekeepers on here first......but we do it all the time when we are fortuante enough to get a warm day in winter! GOOD LUCK TO YA!
atthelake22 :)

[Koala John]

Thanks very much for both of your comments, that's reassuring. I am concerned about bees from the four hives fighting over the frames I leave out, and about bees being killed from flying in the cold and rain to get to the frames. I did try this some months ago and found several dead bees around the frames. The weather conditions are worse now and I am concerned about this. Maybe I should only put frames out when conditions are going to be good for a few days?

[annette]

I freeze frames of honey every winter and give them back to the bees around January or Feb if they need it.  Only I place the frames into the hives, not outside.  I would think that if you get really nice days with temp of 60, you should be able to open the hives quickly and insert the frames into the hives.