Question and help on hive?

[harvey]

Hello all,   I went out today with the intention of pulling the supers off of my only hive.  It is a swarm I convinced into a box may 30th.  I had put two medium supers on top of two deeps once the bees had the two deeps drawn as the hive was packed with bee's.   I live in the thumb area of Michigan.  I did pull the top super today as they had not touched it.  The other super is 8 frames drawn wax and five that are full of honey,  some of it is capped.  I looked into the top deep.  it is ten frames of honey mostly all capped.  I did not see any brood in the top deep?   I didn't look into the bottom deep as I had pretty well P*#!(d the bees off by this time. 
   My questions:   Can I leave the top super on for much longer?  I would like to get a little honey if I could.  Also shouldn't I have seen some brood in the top deep?   Should I pull the bottom deep apart and check it for brood?   I haven't put an entrance reducer on yet either?  should I or can I wait awhile?   The bees are pretty busy right now working the golden rod.

[Kathyp]

you do need to take a look at this time of the year.  if there is anything wrong like disease, or lost queen, your time to fix it is pretty limited.  you can leave that top super on.  they need to cure that honey or you'll end up with fermented stuff.  if they still have stuff to work, and have backfilled the brood chamber, you may yet get more honey from that super.

if you are not treating for mites, etc. you can leave that super on until your last inspection, or until it's filled.  it is unlikely they will rob from it since they have done a good job filling below.

you may have a robbing problem from other hives or critters at this time of the year.  i have put my reducers on with the large opening.  i noticed some yellowjackets bothering them.

[harvey]

Thanks Kathy,  I will put my reducer on next week.  I think I botherdem enough for today.  At least they thought so.  I was suprised not to see any brood in the top deep.  This is the first time there has been none, now it is all honey?  Maybe the brood is in the bottom deep?  I hope so will check that next week also.  I can't believe how many bees there are.  every frame is just jam packed.  I was scared to move them for fear of squishingem.  I was careful with them though. 

[Kathyp]

they begin to reduce brood with temps and length of day.  there still should be brood in there.  you will have to check that bottom box.  a deep full of honey will be very heavy.  you may need to pull some frames before you try to move it.  put them in an empty box with a cover, or you will have a robbing problem and they will be nasty.  smoke them!

what you want to look for is brood of all stages, and any sign of disease.  once you have verified that things are ok, you can probably leave them alone until spring.  anything that goes wrong later in the fall or into the winter will be to late for you to fix.

work as you always do.  start at the outside and remove a couple of frames, then slide frames over and remove so that you have space and won't squish bees and your queen.

[MustbeeNuts]

I'm with Kathyp, this time of year there isn't the bounty of brood. seasons over for them, they do have some winter brood but thats it. do your fall check, take what you can, waiting for the one to be capped. then feed them heavily. That insures they are filling the deeps for winter. Up here it can get so cold the bees can't break cluster to go up to the super.  You have to havve the brood boxes, deeps backfilled for sure. as much as they can pack in there. the deeps should weight easily 80+lbs ea. thats a good sign for winter stores.

I also pray alot till spring.:)

[jclark96]

Good advice so far. I would check the bottom deep for brood, keep the partially filled super on for a few more weeks, then feed like crazy.