Hi some advise needed, I am in the SW of Western Australia in Denmark I have 2 hives I got two Nucs last autumn was able to put supers on middle of spring. One hive filled 4 frames with in a couple of weeks I took one frame, i then left to wait for them to fill the entire super, it never happen blossom seemed to fade out on our property and they moved it around then they consumed it it has now been empty for a month or so and not many bees up there, my question is with this hive do I take the super off for winter and what is the process off this?
Secondly my other hive 50ks away was in the middle off 100 acres of jarrah and Redgum and took up until feb before the frames were full harvested 4 last month and n checking thd other day it is full again, should I harvest a certain number of frames and leave the
rest for the bees or take all, and remove? Our winter would be mild id say average day time temps 16degC
Thanks
If the super is empty then with cooler weather I would remove it. That will make it kinder to the colony with less space to warm, monitor over Winter if supplemental feeding of 1:1 sugar/water is needed. If there is no chance of robbing then you could place the super close to the entrance on its side so that any bees in the Flow Frames can fly to the hive, ok, it is a no-no but if there is no other hives nearby it is an option. You could also remove each of the Flow Frames and shake any bees on them back into the hive.
The other hive 50 ks away I would leave 1/2 of the frames for the bees and 1/2 of the honey for you. Doing that the bees will have stores if they need it while also giving them comb to store any Winter flow. Here now the Red Gums are in heavy flower and with the recent rain there is a good flow of nectar in them.
I never take all the honey from a hive, I always leave the hive with food in case of a dearth or bad weather.
Cheers Jared