@Doug1, you truly are a master of beekeeping. I am constantly impressed with your methods, thoughts and experience. Thank you for sharing it so generously.
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Dawn you’re no slouch yourself…and a main reason why the Flow forum is as active as it is. You do a much better job educating the newbies… which takes a lot of patience. Actually there are some very well versed beekeepers that give advice/trouble shoot on this forum…and then with the backing of the Flowhive folk, a great site in general. I wish I had this forum for advice when I was starting out. Now if we could get Peter48 to come back and share the load… 
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I second that!
That’s fascinating Doug. Can I ask how you set up for winter?
This is really fascinating. Do you freeze then store those frames you’ve removed? When do you add back your second box for winter?
Thanks for tagging us Jeff, and for your feedback Alan.
As a matter of company policy, we are not able discuss the personal details of other forum members or comment on why a member of the forum has left or been removed.
However, I want to assure you that your feelings on it have been heard and agree that he has been a very active contributor to the forum.
Thanks again for your feedback and kind acknowledgement of Peter’s contributions.
Hi @Doug1,
How do you prepare hive for wintering with such brood management method?
That is a very good question…summarized, “How do you get a hive that near the end of the honeyflow consists of all brood and insufficient feed for winter stores?”
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Two weeks before the end of the honey flow the last of the honey is removed and under my conditions, that allows enough time for the bees to still plug out the brood chamber(s) with feed…that’s a theoretical starting point. Of course, more times than not, nature doesn’t co-operate . But last fall, during the final days of flying weather, all the conditions were in place for an extended flow so I “under-supered” the brood box. By “under-supered” I mean just put another full-depth box under the single brood box used during summer. This bottom box had a combination of full frames of pollen and honey and a few empty frames for the queen to go down into if needed. They brought in a lot of honey.
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Most falls I have to feed sugar syrup, but in that case I winter in singles. Most of our honey producers are huge colonies that have been reduced from six full depth boxes to one after the honey harvest. So sometimes I will add the equivalent of an empty shallow super under the brood box just for extra bee room to get this configuration:
The bees seem to really like this combo.
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Since my hives’ only forage source later in the summer has been 2nd cut alfalfa…and alfalfa isn’t a pollen source for honeybees…I generously supply, in the fall, pollen patties. I want my “winter bee” (long-lived bees) population as high as possible…our winters are so long.
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In parrallel with wintering honey producing colonies, I have made up during the previous summer nucleus colonies that are headed by young queens and these are my “replacement stock” for the big colonies that don’t make the winter. These nucs get quite powerful by fall…often are wintered in doubles.
The nucleus colonies are placed on the top shelf in the wintering building.
Winter feed consumption per colony is 17- 26 lbs when wintered indoors.
This is what works in my area…you might be able to draw out some ideas from this to suit your conditions.
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Thank you, @Doug1. Now I see where “switch” is happening 
@Doug1 I totally agree with your comments regarding both this forum, and the help through the flow hive forum team. Most of what I’ve learnt since starting my beekeeping journey last November when I bought nuc of bees, has been on this forum. Even when some of the advice has been a bit conflicting, though that doesn’t mean that any of the advice given was wrong, just different paths to the same end results.
Thank you ALL from a very green newbee:crazy_face:
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@Doug1 do you provide any additional heating for the bees with such long winters? Our winters are more of a nasty sort of cold, caused by heavy frosts which even freezes water pipes, and even have been known to crack water meters open. Those frosts even known to kill lambs at times, it seems to be a different kind of cold to that of snow. I am going to attempt to try a 12V electrical heating pad under the hive, to help the bees to more easily maintain the optimal hive temperature, without using up all their honey supply’s over winter, particularly this coming winter, as I feel that after having such a mild Spring, and Summer, this coming winter maybe a bit colder than normal. I have a small digital thermometer, with it’s sensor just inside the roof cavity, but am going to set the sensor up into the plug that’s in the panel that’s under the roof of the FH2, and hopefully it will help me monitor the internal temp of the hive throughout winter.
Usually with a frosty night, it is followed by a sunny day, so the canvas cover can be rolled back to give the hive some of that sunshine.
@Doug1 in Number 2 you show the brood box on top of an empty box, with what looks like a huge number of bees hanging from the BB frames. My question is, is there enough food stored in the BB to keep such a large number off bees, going all the way though the winter there?
Fortunately we have no SHB here and I am able to control wax moth by storing unused equipment where it is exposed to our winter ambient temperatures.
For the larger honey producing colonies, I usually don’t add a second box unless there is a pending late flow. And if I do add that second box in the fall, it is never on top of the broodnest. To do so that late in the season is a recipe for disaster…placing extra room for the hive on top of the brood nest is a late spring/summer technique only.
With regards to the wintered replacement hives (nucs made up during summer), they get their extra brood box on top of the brood nest when the growing population demands it.
It’s very convenient to use up those wonderful, high-quality feed frames that have been removed during late spring/early summer swarm control…i.e. when I’m expanding the brood nest horizontally.
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If you look closely at the background in the photo, you will see snow pack. So that photo is actually of the wintered hive the following spring. The bodies of the bees are themselves nature’s perfect insulator but your question has merit…those large colonies have to be dealt with first thing in the spring to make sure they have adequate stores. If I feel they are running short late winter, I do this…i.e. lifting the broodbox and the shallow off the bottom board and inserting the feed. This is one of the many advantages of wintering in this style of beehouse…often it is -20C outside the beehouse at this time of year…and I’m still working my bees. In a couple of weeks I complete a thorough inspection.
The same happened to my frames! than you for your help guys!
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