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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Katja <katjasage AT yahoo.com>, "ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Winter Bee Space?
  • Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2016 13:11:47 -0500

Katja,

Yes, that's way too much space, not because of cold issues but because of beetle issues. Two deeps, well provisioned with honey, is generous and sufficient in our area, all the space that is needed, and a healthy, strong colony should be able to police that much space to control pests.

However I wouldn't make configuration changes this time of year -- the bees don't have much opportunity to fix things the right way once you rearrange. If it were mine, I would probably leave them as-is until March 1st and then adjust. The beetle population won't explode during the winter but could go nuts once things start to warm up.

However if you do decide to remove the mostly empty, top-most super, just take it off and be done with it. As long as the cluster isn't in it, there isn't any problem in doing so. The bees won't die from one short blast of cold air, any more than you die if somebody opens your front door to come in when it is freezing outside.

My guess is that the top-most super is empty of bees right now if the space below is full of honey. If you take the super off on a warm day like today, just shake off any bees that are on the frames onto the entrance. If the weather is cooler, like in the 40s, the comb will likely be empty since the cluster is likely below. Since we don't know the status of the 2 deeps with regard to honey stores, I would leave the full super on until March.

Of course this is all just arm-chair quarterbacking that may not address your actual situation, if what you are seeing is different than what I am guessing you are seeing.

Randall


On 12/17/2016 11:21 PM, Katja via ocba wrote:
Greetings,

We are wondering about our hive situation for the winter. We have read books,
attended bee school, and read this list regularly, and still find we aren't
quite sure if we have the right configuration for the winter. We have two
brood boxes, a full honey super on top of that, and a super with four or
five frames of honey as the fourth box (the remaining frames have been drawn
out but have little to no honey in them). We haven't gone in to look since
the weather's been cold, so we don't know the current stores or if the brood
ball has moved up. Our basic question is whether four boxes is too many for
the cold time, if we are risking beetle infestation with the empty frames,
and if so, the best way to remove the top super this time of season without
traumatizing our bees.

Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated!

Katja and Mark

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