# Taking honey in mid September



## Corto (May 29, 2017)

I took one bar a little over a week ago and replaced the cut bar back in. They have yet to really draw anything new out on it, but there is a big (smelly) Goldenrod flow going on here as well. I have 9/10 brood and 9/10 capped honey. I haven't inspected deep for quite a while so I don't know how the tops of the brood combs are looking with honey.

So mine, even though they seem to be bringing in and filling a lot (somewhere!) they are not rebuilding the bar I took yet.


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## trishbookworm (Jun 25, 2016)

i looked in a hive and found 3 combs of drone sized cells (mainly). All were close to half full of honey and no nectar. For 1 of the bars, I cut the drone comb and honey out, put it back with the worker sized cells intact. For the other 2 I just removed them. I did not inspect all the way through, only to #12/20 (lang sized bars btw), but all had either some capped honey or more importantly ROOM FOR NECTAR. I figure this probably won't be the last straw, but they will need better checked to see if they need feeding. In fact, as I think about this, I will make a sugar board "comb" and put it at the end after the honey filled bars - emergency feeding if needed.

Last yr, I could see the cluster in 1 hive - the comb in front wasn't fully drawn out - and they stayed at the front the whole winter. IT wasn't until March that they were tapping into stores and they did not use much of their 7 bars of honey/nectar - until spring. 

Makes me wonder if winter consumption is different for a top bar....


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## Corto (May 29, 2017)

I went in yesterday and added a frame of rock hard fondant (recipe from Gold Star Honeybees) at the end of the honey. Far as I can tell, the bees have at least 10 fully capped frames of honey, plus the fondant I just added, and whatever they stored above the brood cells. I think they should be in good shape. I don't plan on opening the hive anymore this year. They are still bringing in a lot of goldenrod and the whole backyard smells bad at times.


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