Too much honey?

[ablanton]

Okay, so last year was my first winter -- only we didn't really have any winter.  It was so warm, the bees ate up pretty much all of their stores by the end of March.  I checked them in February, and they were exploding with bees.  I was chasing bees by March 31.

This year we are actually having some winter weather.  It has been cold most days and the bees haven't been as active.  Today was warm and sunny, so I took the opportunity to pop some tops and take a quick peak at some hives.  Most of them are still packed with honey.  There were enough bees that I'd call the hives healthy, but they weren't exploding with bees like they were this time last year.

How much honey is too much, and at what point in the year should I start pulling frames of honey and replace with empty comb or foundation?  If I can help it, I don't want to be chasing bees again this year -- especially due to honey-bound hives.

[iddee]

Too much is "no empty space".
Pull it when they start bringing in nectar. Pull only fully capped frames.

[tbonekel]

Boy, I wish I had that problem!

[ablanton]

yah, we had a very good goldenrod & aster flow this past fall.  bad thing is, i topped it off with syrup to make sure the girls had enough for winter, so the surplus does me no good.  worst case, it'll go in the freezer for july & august when they are always scrounging.

[iddee]

You wouldn't want to sell it, but you may want to taste it and maybe keep it for your own use. It's got to be better than what they got from the pop cans in the trash.

[tecumseh]

a snip...
Most of them are still packed with honey

tecumseh...
do you mean the very top of the hive is packed with honey or the entire hive is packed with honey?

a honey bound hive is of course a problem that some folks will have to learn to deal with <can be the primary reason a hive swarms.  there are simple manipulation to limit the problem if you actually have one.  at least here when the brood rearing revs up high enough quite often what first looks to be like excessive stores look like nada by the time the first flow arrives.

[Jen]

tbone- Mee Too! I have a gift shop here in town that would sell it for me without a label

[Riverrat]

check back at the end of the month I bet there is less honey and the girls solved the problem on there own.

[Jen]

I'm finding that out now. Just since two weeks ago I can heft my hive easier. It's actually pretty cold for bees to be out. But Mine are out! bringing back pollen and every puddle of water is surrounded by my bees.

I'll be feeding my family winter patties far sooner than I anticipated.

[ablanton]

Tec --

When I say packed, I'm talking about 6 of 8 deeps frames up top and 2 to 3 full ones in the bottom with the remaining bottom frames being 20% to 30% each. 

Maybe that's normal.  I dunno.  My first real winter with real winter temperatures . . .

[iddee]

Heft them daily and watch for the weight to decrease. When it does, check inside often until the weight starts to gain again.

[pistolpete]

I have severe winter conditions every year.  Tonight it's -22 C.  When it's really cold out the bees don't really use more honey, they just cluster way tighter.   The time they use the bulk of their stores is to raise brood after the willow pollen starts to come in, but nothing else is blooming yet.  Sounds to me like you should be splitting your bees instead of chasing them.  Those full frames of honey are great for making up nucs.

[Jacobs]

I'm starting to see olive green pollen coming into hives and less interest in my spent brewers yeast mix.  It's time in our part of North Carolina to start seeing red maples in bloom.  This usually marks the beginning of serious brood build up and serious threats of bee starvation late this month or in March.  Definitely keep an eye on hive weight.

As the on call "bee guy" for our county Ag Extension office the last couple of years, I learned that red maple bloom time is also the beginning of calls from the public looking for local honey for allergies.