So i was doing my final harvest on the weekend and pulled the Flow Frames and excluder off the hive and did a deep dive down into the remaining brood box and honey super (the super I leave for the bees over winter ). It seems the queen had got around the excluder and switched the box configuration, so now the lower box is the super and the upper is the brood box!
Question, is this ok to leaveover winter ? (southern Ontario Canada )
Thanks for any advice !
Clarify your set up for me? You have two deeps with a queen excluder between them and then the flow super on top?
If that’s correct, then I would recommend removing the flow super and the queen excluder and reversing the deeps (to put the honey on top) and the wrapping/insulating your hive for the winter.
Some people will reverse the deeps again in the spring.
Hopefully there is no brood in the flow super…
You might consider looking up the university of Guelph YouTube video on single brood box management.
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So right now the deep super witb regular frames (full of capped honey) is at the bottom and then the deep brood box is above. I’ve removed the box with the Flow Frames.
I’ve reversed the boxes in the spring but wasn’t sure if it was ok this time of year? Or if was ok to just leave them over winter the way it is?
I was thinking the super should be on top so the honey is warm enough to stay liquid …
Thx
More that the bees will move upward to stay where it is warmer and it would be good for their food stores to be in the same area.
Out of curiosity, why didn’t you put the queen excluder directly under the flow frames? Maybe your queen got through and couldn’t get back down and that is how you ended up in your current situation… normally if you give them two deeps (unrestricted movement between the two) they will store honey above and brood mostly below.
Don’t worry about that at all. Bees will eat solid white granulated sugar over winter, as well as fondant. They are not at all deterred by it being solid. 