Should the honey super be removed ?

[Nardi]

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

[rookie2531]

What's that, 6-8 lbs. Of food versus open cold space?

[rwlaw]

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.

[rober]

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?