A couple light hives and....

[SteveSC]

The bees seem to be doing well this winter.  I have 5 hives that are doubles - and 3 that are one hive body + a super.  A couple of the hives seem to be getting light.  I realize that they will get lighter due to the bees not foraging and bring pollen or nectar back to the hive - the lack of new brood and with population declines in the winter.

My question is: Do I remove the empty super or the empty top hive body ( empty, meaning not many bees present and stores almost depleted ) or do I leave it on...? 

I would think that by leaving it on it would be just more space for the bees to try to keep warmer.  That may be just the opposite - it may act as some type of insulation to bees located below..  If I were to do this ( remove super and\or hive body ) it would need to be done on the warm days - about 60+F.  Would that work for the bees...?

[tom]

Steve
 

   You can do this the way finsky told me and that is to take all of your drawn comb and fill it with syrup. You may have to do it a couple of time because of air bubbles but it worked well for me and my girls are doing well and you can also make some candy and put on them that will carry them for a while all three of mine has candy on them and i am waiting for some warm weather so they can fly out again.

Tom

[SteveSC]

Tom..

Actually I was talking about removing the top hive body or top supers that are light.  The botton hive bodies seem to have stores still there. Does it matter if you leave an empty, meaning empty drawn comb super or hive body on in the winter, or is it just a waste of space and would better served to remove it until the flow starts later in the spring.  Currently the bees have to travel up through the empty drawn comb to get to the top feeders - I just thought that extra traveling was a waste of energy for them...

What do you think, I'm not sure.  Thanks.

I'm currently feeding heavy 2:1 syrup on all the hives.

[TwT]

Steve, I would just leave it alone, they probably storing some feed in the center frames of the super and it not hurting nothing with just one super, they could also have a little brood in the center frames..... I would leave it alone, just my opinion

[SteveSC]

Thanks Ted..   

If anyone has any suggestion let me know - for now I'll leave them alone.

[gottabee]

I agree with Ted. I would leave them alone until warm weather.