Thought I could leave flow super on for winter

[nelson.brynn]

I thought I would be able to leave the Flow super on through winter, but just found out I can’t because of our cold climate. What should I do at this point for winter feeding? It is mid-August, and we have a good flow going now. Any advice is appreciated as it my first year beekeeping, and I don’t want to lose my bees this winter.

[chau06]

There might be some pertinent info in this discussion:

Happy Busy Bees - 1st Year Hive - Should I Extract Honey or Add Another Super?

Hello, and welcome to the community! Looks like you’re in the honey! What’s your current set up? I’m assuming you have a single deep brood box with a queen excluder and a flow super? Even though there are some side discussions about multiple flow supers, this really isn’t necessary in most circumstances because you can just harvest the honey before they run out of space. This is different than in a traditional langstroth hive set up. The honey in the flow super will need to be extracted one …

[Spinner_of_Sweetness]

Once extracting is done, you can place the Flow super over the inner cover but under the outer cover and the bees should go up and clean it out and pull any residual honey down to their box. Your next goal will be making sure the super is stored in a manner that mice can’t get to it.
If the honey isn’t capped by now, chances are they aren’t going to. You can extract it and check it with a refractometer or do like I do and give it the “shake” test. Take the frame out, give it a firm “shake” over a clean surface. If no honey splashes out, it’s ready. If you’re going to consume it quickly, it probably won’t have time to spoil anyway.