Honey stores for winter ???

[backyard warrior]

I checked out my bees today and they seem to have most of their honey stored in the two mediums i left on to be drawn out.  The two bottom deeps really dont have much honey except on the outer frames. They have lots of brood in the uppper deep box and lots of pollen and pollen paties stored down below in the bottom deep.  The two upper mediums are full of honey.  Is this sufficient for the Pennsylvania area.

[Kathyp]

they don't really need the pollen over the winter.  i think i'd pull the empty (of brood and honey) deep and leave them with one deep and the mediums that have honey.  two deeps and two mediums is probably to much space for winter.

freeze those pollen frames and give them back in the spring.

[AllenF]

2 deeps will get you through winter.  Just how many frames are capped in the deep?  If needed you can leave the med for winter food.  Or you can uncap the med and put it on bottom and the bees will move the honey into the top.   They store honey above the brood.  Lots of things you can do, and they will all work.

[Michael Bush]

The point is the total weight.  What does the hive weigh?

[jzinger]

Kathy, how interesting you say they don't need pollen in the winter.  Don't they need to feed it to the youngsters hatching between now and spring?  If not, why do people give pollen patties in the fall to feed the brood? I have a similar problem and was planning to switch the bottom two supers, putting the brood one on the bottom and the half filled pollen one above it, so she can either move up and lay in it or they can fill it with food for the winter.  Mine are all mediums.  Any thoughts?

[Kathyp]

in a place like your's, mine, and the above, feeding pollen in the fall would be a waste.  whatever pollen they need for the last of the fall brood they will bring in.  in cold winter areas there is a complete, or nearly complete, break in the brood rearing cycle.  at the time they start with brood again, there is natural pollen available in most places, although many people will feed pollen in the early spring or even late winter.
in my area my first pollen usually shows up in February.  i would not want them raising brood any earlier than that and even then some is lost to the cold.  because we often have a lot of rain, i will put a pollen patty on in late February, but never in fall. 
in the south, there might be a reason to feed pollen in the fall, but someone from down there should address that.

[Culley]

I assumed responsibility for a hive that had an excluder over the first deep. There were about six frames of pollen. They've built up very noticeably faster than the others, despite starting the season with around 3 frames of brood. (It's spring here.)