We are located in the Yarra valley, Victoria. We have a brood box with a super. Super is full. I normally take it off (because it’s empty) and winter them with the brood box only. This year because it is full I was debating on weather to leave it on however I did t want to remove the queen excluder because I know I will be too late to put it back on. So do I just do what I normally do and winter them with the brood box only? Or can I leave the super on with the queen excluder in place?
Sorry I know it’s been asked a million times but I’m really not sure.
Thankyou
Hi Brooke, go ahead and harvest it all before cold weather comes. You can feed this back to the bees later.
If you don’t, the cluster could move up to get closer to the stores but the queen would be stuck underneath the QX and die. If you do remove it, you are right - there’s a strong chance you’ll be too late to avoid brood being raised in your Flow frames.
I avoid the whole thing by taking the Fsuper and QX off for the winter. I put the emptied super on top of the inner cover and under the roof, to create a separation that enables the bees to clean up the residue without attracting robbers. Some folks do fine by leaving the super on one end in their yards, so bees take care of the cleanup. I tend to have a robbing problem in fall so I try not to leave honey exposed in my yard.
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Great thankyou. I didn’t know if there was a way around it. But sounds like I’ll do what I normally do and take it off. Thanks again
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