When to take off supers bee have not drawn out.

[labradorfarms]

Ok This was my first year Bee Keeping. I have a question.. My Bees have to deeps full one med super full of capped honey. I added another med super which they are slowly drawing out.....  My question is how long should I leave on that super???? I doubt very seriously they the finish before the winter sets in.. Should I just leave in on all winter? Or give them another week or so and remove and store it?

[BeeMaster2]

Labrador,
I have been concerned about the same thing. One good thing about our fall weather here is that the air tends to be dryer. I have been watching the observation hive and they are finally capping the honey. The bees will cap half filled cells. This is important to protect the honey. They will also move the honey around.
Jim

[Vance G]

If you have two deep brood boxes full the bees will winter nicely in them and it is good to take the supers off.  Set the supers off and unless the hive bodies feel light when you lift the hive, you are fine for the winter.  The capped super can be extracted and since you seem to still have some honey coming in if the bees are drawing on the partial box, they may very well fill the extracted box again.  If you don't remove the supers, the bees will be raising brood in them come spring.  If the queen excluder is still on, the bees may abandon the queen if they move up past the excluder for the stores.  If you have had a queen excluder over your hive bodies, the bees would not have filled supers if there was still room below!  So extract your honey and take the supers off when the bees stop bringing in honey.  Extract again if there is enough.  

[iddee]

""If you have had a queen excluder over your hive bodies, the bees would not have filled supers if there was still room below!""

If the supers have foundation only, this may be true. If they have drawn comb, the bees will likely fill the supers first, before storing in the deeps.

[Joe D]

If your deep are full I would take the full super off and leave the one they are building comb in.  You are farter north than me, but down here Golden rod is just fixing to get started.  Later you could decide to take it off or not.  Good luck





Joe

[cao]

I see your options as:
1. Leave as is and let them fill the second super.
2. Remove the second super and let them start backfilling the brood nest in the deeps.
3. Remove the first super and let them try to fill the second.

IMO I would vote for option 2.  I would think that two deeps and a super would bee enough room for them to store enough honey to get them through winter.   Mine made it with a deep and two med last winter.  That being said I'm only in my second year with bees.

Chris

[jayj200]

Two deeps are enough as they must maintain any supers during the winter that means warming them so the girls can be up there.

I vote remove the supers