How much honey to leave?

[ledifni]

So...I think I may get a honey harvest this year.  I know, generally a hive isn't ready for honey harvest in its first year (got the hive from a tree last fall), but they're already filling one super pretty solidly (that is, not counting the brood nest) and I figure after that super, I'll put a queen excluder on top, add two more supers, and let them have at it.  If they fill them full enough I'll extract this summer.

My question is, if I do that, am I leaving enough for the winter?  I'll be leaving about one and a half full mediums of honey, since the second box down is packed with honey on the outside of the brood nest.  Would that suffice for a Texas winter?  In particular, if any southern beekeepers can weigh in on that I would very much appreciate any advice.

[Ray]

Pay attention when some of your fellow Lone Star Beeks chime in. Honey isn't the only necessary ingredient, for successful over-wintering. Good to hear you MAY have a harvest!

[iddee]

That should be plenty. Are you using just 2 mediums? No deeps?

[ledifni]

That should be plenty. Are you using just 2 mediums? No deeps?

My upper brood box is a deep, but I'm hoping to eventually transition to all mediums.  Right now, I have medium-deep-medium, where the top medium is fresh comb being filled with honey (and from what I can see, they're going to start capping it soon).

[iddee]

I would put the deep on bottom and the excluder over the first medium, and call the second medium "MINE". Of course, I will never give up my deeps. Too old to change now.      

[ledifni]

I would put the deep on bottom and the excluder over the first medium, and call the second medium "MINE". Of course, I will never give up my deeps. Too old to change now.      

I might consider it, only I'm pretty sure at least some of the contents of the upper medium are syrup from the spring feeding I gave them.  I don't want to harvest syrup   But from here on out, I'll call the rest "mine".  Sorry ladies.  I want some of the good stuff too

[pistolpete]

Up here in the great white north I leave about 80 Lbs.  That's one deep box and part of another.  They still have lots left in the spring.   There is nothing that says you can't have a honey harvest your first year.  My first hive was a Nuc purchased at the end of May.  By the end of August They had drawn out 50 frames and produced nearly 200 lbs of excess honey.   I have not been able to repeat that feat, but sometimes nature blesses us with a real bounty.   On average I get about 80 lbs from a first year hive.

[LazyBkpr]

if those bees survived the winter, and you have drawn comb in a medium and a deep coming into spring, I would be willing to BET on enough honey to extract this year..
  If you start a hive with no drawn comb in the spring, it takes resources and time for them to fill all those frames. This is part of the reason first year hives dont usually produce excess honey. They are busy using it to make wax..  Numbers also plays a crucial role..  a package of bees has a decline as they attempt to build comb for the queen to lay in.., The OLD bees are dying, and not being replaced YET... so they are acting as nurse bees, house bees, and foragers... It takes time for the queen to get egg laying ramped up and the number of bees built up..    You already have all of those things..   
    If you want to get rid of the deep, leave the deep and TWO mediums on this fall..  next spring you should be able to pull the empty deep and add another medium. I will never give up my mediums!!   

[tbonekel]

Last year was my first honey harvest and I was so excited, I really took it too soon. Once harvested, I put the supers back on to see what they would do in the fall. I had one hive fill up one super and I ended up leaving it on, so the hive had two deeps and a medium. That was too much honey for the winter. The bees didn't even touch the top super at all and didn't really impact the top deep. I think if you have one and a half supers filled going in, I think that will be plenty. This year, I plan on harvesting in August!

[Colobee]

How much honey is "enough to overwinter" depends on what race of bees you have (and the severity of the winter). Carni's are know to overwinter on less stores than Italians. Your swarm is likely some kind of "mutt". I have had great success overwintering Italians in 3 mediums (=2 deeps) up here in Colorado. 3 mediums is actually too much, but I'd rather have lives bees in the spring than a (starved) dead out.
 
I suspect you'd be fine with a (full) deep/medium down in Texas. You might even get by with a lone deep but that would seem risky.  Some local input would be very valuable for you .

[vossejongk]

Same with me, finished my beekeeping course at the local keep society, and they give you a swarm if you want one. I got mine end of June including drawn frames they were on to fill a deep (you buy the hive yourself) end of July they drew all frames on the medium super and gathered 12kg of honey

[Gypsi]

My flow ends early here, if I leave honey on after June 30th there won't be any to harvest, so I rob them by July 1st, and start feeding as the flow diminishes.  This is what I did last year, and while I had one hive starve they had a full box of honey above them.

(the other one that keeps running out of food I didn't feed when all the texas beeks were feeding this spring, thinking we had a flow, we didn't, and I'd given that full  box of honey to the other hive.)