As a hobbyist and in my first season I am at the mercy of information overload and how best to care for my bees. I thank everyone for their experienced comments and expertise. You can understand my confusion when bombarded with so much and there is the danger of 'Holy kaka what do I do now'!
I have just reread a recently received newsletter from the local club. An extract re wintering hives.
"Some beekeepers like to leave their bees with a ¾ size super of honey on top of the brood box for extra food for the bees over winter, but this is not necessary. The advantages are you will not need to feed the bees as much sugar syrup over winter and there is more goodness in the honey than the sugar. The disadvantages are : the honey is collected while the varroa treatment is in place leaving a chemical residue in the honey - there is more lifting every time you need to check the hive - next season the bees will have to fill the ¾ super before they can fill other honey supers and so you will get less honey for yourself. I find by feeding the bees regularly, I do not lose any hives over winter because if I see a hive that hasn’t taken down all its sugar syrup, I know it is getting weak and needs attention. Whereas, when a honey super is left on a hive beekeepers tend not to check them regularly."
Sound comments.
As I have two hives I can try the single brood box and double brood box and see what happens. Both supers are presently full to the brim so if there is any more honey collecting it will be in the brood boxes.
My question at this conjecture is, will the supers be emptied completely and therefore I won't need to worry about honey that could be collected whilst treatment for varroa is being carried out? Or do these supers basically be for feeding only and not used at all for next season honey flow?
first thing is be aware that clubs can have meh beeks running them and can give poor advice.
the 2nd is you don't feed hives over winter. winter is not the danger time for lack of feed. even in the warm north, they simply do not use much.
the danger time is spring. where people get caught out is spring is on them before they know it and are running late.
get any feeding done before winter. if in doubt leave extra on. treatment in the honey (which they will eat) is not a big deal. certainly not one to risk killing a hive over.
we are talking 3/4 boxes here so bare minimum is go into winter with TWO brood boxes full. none of this "try it with one" stuff. you don't need to kill hives to learn something (think of the poor bees!). having a 3rd full of stores is perfectly fine.
its a fair bit of work for bees to work sugar every time they are fed and winter bees are not really suited to it (they are longer lived bees).
so the idea is you use the worker bees to pack feed away before the hives reduces for winter (which is what bees do anyway). those bees are going to die off anyway, might as well have them do useful stuff before they go.
once the hive has reduced down to winter size, you want as less work for them as possible. so no opening hives, feeding etc.
set them up for winter then leave them alone.
one of the other problems of winter feed is it stimulates brood rearing. you build up the hive over winter. come spring you have a hive bursting at the seams and, especially in your area, you will run straight into swarming issues.
