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Dangers of late honey harvest

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Bob Wilson:
I am in my 7th year beekeeping, but this is my first real year of honey harvesting with these Layens hives. They each hold the equivalent of a deep brood box with 4 medium supers stacked on top. Layens suggested leaving them alone until fall for honey harvesting, but that leaves a lot of comb with a dwindling bee population through the late summer.
I don't know if this hive couldn't fend off the wax moths, or they got robbed out and the moths moved in afterwards.
Any other long hive/Layens beeks harvest in the fall?

Ben Framed:
Bob I don?t know anything about Layens hives but I have been told a healthy hive will hold off the wax moths if they have a good population. Going by this I can only guess that the wax moths got their foothold (after)  the population was not sufficient enough to ward them off? Sorry for your loss on this one Bob.

Phillip

The15thMember:
Ooh, I feel for you there.  Wax moths destroy everything wholesale when they take over.  To me, it just sounds like the bees had too much space.  I'd be curious to know how different your climate is from Layens's; perhaps "fall" means a slightly different time of year for him, or his weather is different, say colder, in fall than yours.  I know I would not leave 4 supers of honey on my colonies this time of year, but I'd be worried more about beetles than wax moths. 

cao:
This year life has got in the way of beekeeping and I will be harvesting honey late this year.  I have about 2/3 of my 70 hives that I haven't gotten to yet.  It will be a couple weeks before I can get time to go through them.  I will not be harvesting much from most of them (just getting them ready for winter) but, there are several that have multiple extra boxes that need to be taken.  I have noticed that capped honey is usually the last area that is attacked by the pests.  Shb's first choice is the pollen followed by the brood nest area.  The wax moths prefer empty drawn comb that has had several rounds of brood raised in it so there are cocoons in it.

Bob Wilson:
Do many langstroth beeks let supers sit on top until fall? (15Member said no).
Mine never seems to get capped until August, which is dearth and bad robbing season here. It seems my choice is pulling partially capped frames early or waiting and hoping to keep hives strong through July-September until October's goldenrod, when the bees are preoccupied again.
OR... Perhaps you all pull honey frames faster than I do in the apiary in the robbing season.

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