How much honey is needed to winter a hive?

yjk · September 09, 2009, 10:34:02 PM

I've got three hives.

One that is two hive bodies and 4 supers. It is full to the top.
One that is 2 hive bodies and two supers. Full
one that is 2 hive bodies and one super. Full

I'm getting ready to add a super to each one. Can I harvest any of the supers before winter.

I'm in Tulsa OK. I don't want to hurt the hives by removing to much honey.

Let me know.

Joelel · September 09, 2009, 10:43:53 PM

Quote from: yjk on September 09, 2009, 10:34:02 PM
I've got three hives.

One that is two hive bodies and 4 supers. It is full to the top.
One that is 2 hive bodies and two supers. Full
one that is 2 hive bodies and one super. Full

I'm getting ready to add a super to each one. Can I harvest any of the supers before winter.

I'm in Tulsa OK. I don't want to hurt the hives by removing to much honey.

Let me know.

In Ok. If you leave them two lg.brood boxes or three med. You Will do OK . Take all the super honey. In the winter they cut back on brood and back fill with honey and what they think they need. You always need to leave them with a big enough brood body.

buzzbee · September 09, 2009, 10:52:13 PM

Just make sure if you remove the supers that the lower boxes are filled too. The boxes should weigh somewhere around 80 to 100 lbs to ovewrwinter. My bees had a lot in the supers and very little in the lower boxes.If the brood nest is backfilledse along with the supers,congratulate yourself on a good harvest. :)

yjk · September 09, 2009, 11:01:50 PM

Thanks,

I'm going to take off all but one super from each and add a new empty. That gives me 4 supers for harvest. I'm thinking I'll have 3 more by winter.
The hive bodies are full of brood and have a little honey and they weight so much I can't pick them up.

iddee · September 09, 2009, 11:03:42 PM

As buzzbee said, it's the weight of the stores, not the number of boxes. You need 40 to 60 lbs. of honey for them to make it in OK.

yjk · September 09, 2009, 11:18:12 PM

SO if I leave one super on top of 2 hive bodies, I'm going to have plenty to get them through the winter.

Joelel · September 09, 2009, 11:39:12 PM

Quote from: yjk on September 09, 2009, 11:18:12 PM
SO if I leave one super on top of 2 hive bodies, I'm going to have plenty to get them through the winter.

Yes, Most people take off the suppers in about Aug. around where you live and the bees will start cutting back on brood and fill with honey. If the suppers are on,they may not back fill as soon or much. They know what they have and what they need. If you leave suppers on to long and then take them,you could leave the short.

MustbeeNuts · September 11, 2009, 04:24:58 PM

Up here in Michigan we pull supers now and feed the heck out them to make sure they backfill. There is still goldenrod left but sugar syrup sure helps them out. I push all my bees back to 3 meds, equivalent of two deeps. If there not full and backfilled I combine. I am combining this weekend a few hives just to be sure they can winter out. Don't know about OKlahoma. but we get some serious winter up here. Its usually too cold for bees to move out of cluster. I found that out the hardway last year. If its not were they can get to it. They starve out with full supers. Its gotta be backfilled. JMHO..