Harvest Question: Is it ok to wait until Spring?

[Pond Creek Farm]

Is there anything worng with leaving honey on the hives and harvesting it next spring?  I have a couple of hives that have made surplus honey, but I would rather leave it for them just to be sure.  If by late spring it is still there, can I harvest it?  As I get more hives, I will likely not have time to harvest everything all at once too, so I was thinking it might be nice to spread it out. 

[NWIN Beekeeper]

You can, but you do run the risk that it can crystalize.

You might not be able to extract it, and therefore it could only be used to bolster weak hives or allowed to be robbed out.

I wouldn't anticipate that I would have actually liquid honey product for the spring.

[JP]

You can, but you do run the risk that it can crystalize.

You might not be able to extract it, and therefore it could only be used to bolster weak hives or allowed to be robbed out.

I wouldn't anticipate that I would have actually liquid honey product for the spring.

Correctamundo, after some cold snaps honey will start crystalizing and come spring it turns to sugar pretty quickly when bottled.

But like Jeff says, good feed still for the bees.


...JP

[Ross]

but you'll have nice strong hives early next year....

[bassman1977]

Depending on your winters I would be careful of how many boxes are actually on the hive.  If you have too many, they might have a problem keeping themselves warm.

[PeskySquirrel]

What's your definition of surplus honey? It's my first year keeping bees and my overwintering plan was to leave a full super on top of two deeps. The 2nd deep is pretty heavy with stores and the super pretty much all capped. That should leave plenty of food for the winter. But it gets pretty cold here in Wisconsin, so will the bees have trouble keeping all that space warm enough? Should I harvest the super to keep the hive space small and plan to feed sugar in the spring? Thanks for the advice.

[bassman1977]

For me, my definition of surplus honey is anything over 3 or 4 mediums or 2 deeps (this definition of course would be flexible based on the location we are talking about).  I had some smaller hives in two mediums last year and they did fine.  Typically 3 mediums though and I ensure they are stuffed with honey.  I don't like feeding.  To me, it's a money sink and I would rather have my bees eat honey than sugar or corn syrup.  I am fortunate because we have a lot of goldenrod where I am so I really don't have to worry too much about winter feeding unless there is some extraordinary circumstance.

Being where you are, I think I would still be comfortable with how I am doing things in PA as far as winterizing.  I seem to have a lot of excess honey come spring.  Last year many of the hives had close to a full medium.  Someone closer to you will probably chime in with how they do it.

On another note, I highly recommend getting some door shims to prop up your inner covers to allow moisture to escape (2 shims per inner cover is enough).  It works really well and the outer cover keeps the wind from blowing directly into the hives.

[Scadsobees]

If your goal is to get honey, then no, you won't want to wait till spring.  If the hive dies, that honey will not be in edible condition.  As long as you leave enough. 

Yes, the bees can handle the space over the winter.  If you are more interested in your hive surviving, then by all means leave that extra super on.  They will usually start brood rearing in or near the top, so you won't be able to pull the honey off right away, but if they don't need it all, the super will be fuller that much sooner next spring/summer.

If you want to balance the two, you may be able to take the outside 2 or 3 frames and harvest that honey and leave them the rest.

[PeskySquirrel]

The main goal is to get the bees through the winter alive. My original thinking was that if they used the honey in the super for food over the winter, great, and I won't need to feed them in the spring; if not, it's more honey to take off next year. I'd rather extract two or three supers next year than one this year. But now I'm sort of leaning toward taking it off. Maybe I'm over thinking it and either way it'll be ok?

[Sean Kelly]

I left 1 fully capped medium super on two of my hives last winter.  Come spring time the super was still full and not crystalized!  I was going to try and extract it but we had a random hard cold and wet period from May to June.  This killed my three new hives but the ones with the honey super on top survived!  When the cold snap was over that entire super was sucked dry!!!  I think I wouldn't be keeping bees right now if I hadn't left one on.  So this year I've put on a 3rd deep super for them.  Made for a smaller honey harvest this year but I'm hoping I'll have really strong bees next season.

Sean Kelly