It’s only mid-August here in western Connecticut, but I am already thinking about winter. I started from a new nuc this spring and they have prospered well. I have three deep hive boxes. Top is a Flow Hive, then queen excluder, then two lower deeps. Tons of honey in the Flow hive and the other two boxes are mostly brood–some honey in the corners. I am planning to harvest just one frame of honey and leave the rest for the bees for the winter. I still need to treat for varroa after my mini-honey pull.
Questions: Can I (should I) leave all three hive boxes out for the winter? Is there a way to incent them to consolidate back to just the two lower hive boxes?
I would not leave the Flow super on over winter. If you do, you risk crystallized honey (making next year’s harvest impossible) and stranding the queen below the queen excluder (QE) if you leave that in place. If you take the QE out, you risk brood in the Flow super early next year, which is a very messy cleanup.
I would harvest the whole Flow super at the end of the season, then take it off. Don’t harvest more than 2 frames in any day, or you risk flooding the hive if the frames leak back (they do sometimes).
It is probably better to treat for varroa once the super is off anyway - you will have less hive volume to treat.
For now, it would be fine to harvest just 2 frames, and leave the Flow super on. I usually take it off no later than September, after any fall flow is over (we don’t have one locally, but the bees clean up the super for me if I leave it in place for July/August). You need to watch at this time of year. As the cooler nights begin, bees will begin to seal things up with propolis. Again, not good for the Flow mechanism. Best to take it off before it gets gummed up!
Thanks Dawn. I want to encourage them to store honey in the lower two hive boxes. Since they don’t have much honey down there, I am concerned about harvesting the whole 3rd super (flow hive) or taking it off now. I am feeding them again as we are in a bit of a low nectar time here in the northeast US. I am thinking I will leave the 3rd super (flow hive) on a bit longer and then see if they are starting to store more in the lower two boxes.
You can always harvest the Flow super, take it off, then feed the honey back to them once the super is out of their reach. That way, they will have to store it in the lower boxes!
The bees will store honey in the lower 2 hive boxes as they start preparing for winter. As they constrict the brood, they will replace it with honey.
What I would do is harvest the flow honey for personal use, then see if the bees do replace the brood with honey as winter approaches. I remember reading about a Golden Rod honey flow in the Fall in your area. @VinoFarm
Bear in mind that the better insulated a hive is during winter, the less honey they consume in order to survive the winter. @Doug1
