Hi, I live in England down south and am wondering whether when winter comes I should take my flow super of or not, right now I have one brood box but I hope too put another one on when the time comes (when is that best) and hopefully get a little bit of honey out of this summer I do also have a sugar-water feeder (when would be best to put that on if at all).
Thank you
Hugo
Hi Hugo.
Usually supers come off during the Winter, unless you’re leaving them on with honey stores for the colony to use through the Winter. With my colonies, I make sure they have sufficient stores in the brood box before I winter them, and remove the supers. I then monitor the hives during the Winter to make sure there are enough stores. If they run low, I feed fondant to keep them going. The disadvantage of leaving supers on in the Winter is that the colony naturally decreases during Winter, and if there is an empty super on the hive, they have great trouble keeping the hive heated, as they will have to heat empty space, and therefore use up more of their stores.
With regard to the extra brood box, only put on another brood when the first box is totally full of bees, brood and stores, and they need extra space for the Queen to lay. Again they will not thank you for putting another space above them to heat if they don’t have enough bees to move into it.
The weather is good at the moment, and they should not need feeding, so don’t put that on at the moment. They should be bringing in plenty of pollen and nectar at the moment. However, should the weather turn for any period of time, you may need to feed them with syrup. Hope this helps.
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Hiya Hugo, winter is coming…
Gary gave some great tips, I’d only want to clarify that the Flow super should come off at the end of the fall nectar flow, if any round your parts, for the duration of winter. I drain whatever is left in the frames and test for water content and store accordingly. Then set the super on its side in your yard for the bees to clean up, and prepare to put away for winter. Check the search area for more tips on how to store them! Meanwhile, enjoy the springtime 
Thank you guys very much that as BEEn very helpful,
Hugo