Subject: Honey on hive over winter?

From: [email-masked] (Joe Schell)
Date: 6 Sep 1996 23:39:30 GMT

I have a couple of hives out back up on a hill.  They are difficult to 
reach for feeding in the winter snows. My question is how much honey 
should I leave on the hives to get my bees through the winter?  One hive 
has two hive bodies and one super of honey, the other only one hive body 
with 4 supers of honey. Can I take any honey off to extract?
Thanks,  Joe     [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Joel Govostes)
Date: Sat, 07 Sep 1996 07:35:29 -0500

> Thanks,  Joe     [email-masked]

You should probably leave the colony with two hive bodies with the two
hive bodies for winter.  Take the supers off soon so they can fill these
with plenty of honey before winter comes.

The other hive I'd leave with the single hive body and 1 super, IF the
super is completely jammed with honey.  Remove the other supers and,
again, let them fill up the two boxes with fall honey available between
now and frost.  If you find that the upper box on either hive is not full
or practically full of honey come frost, you might best leave an extra
super of honey on each to be safe.  This will be a good investment in next
year's success.  Having to feed sugar syrup is a bother IMO and it's
easier to leave them with plenty of honey.

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From: spiderlily <[email-masked]>
Date: 14 Sep 1996 02:37:00 GMT

> My question is how much honey
>should I leave on the hives to get my bees through the winter?

About sixty pounds.

Agni Bhaktarama

Carbonaria Honey Farm
Madhya Pradesh, India