# How much honey do I leave the bees?



## Daniel Y (Sep 12, 2011)

I left them a deep last year and they really did not touch it until spring. When they started building up in March they went through it fairly fast. So either leave them honey or be ready to feed in the spring. I think a single hive could plow through about 5 gallons of sugar water in a couple of weeks during build up. no measuring their just a guesstimate. I will be leaving a med super on each hive this fall. I woudl rather have the insurance that honey is already on the hive than miss the start of the build up.


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## casinoken (May 6, 2012)

The key is how strong the hive is going into winter. The stronger the hive (numbers of bees), the more honey they can and will use. If u have two deeps and there are barely enough bees to cover all frames, then when winter hits and they go into cluster mode, the two deeps (with a good amount of honey stores) should be enough. You have to take into account the severity of your winter. Bees cluster to keep warm, if it is extremely cold, more boxes are just more area the cluster has to heat. If they can't keep the hive warm enough all over, they will starve with plenty of stores available to them because it is simply too cold away from the cluster for them to get to the honey.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

http://bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm

I follow Doolittles "millions in the bank" plan. If the bees have a lot of stores to burn to build brood they will build brood in the spring. If they don't they will hold off for the flow. I adjust the amount of honey for winter to the amount of brood.

http://bushfarms.com/beesulbn.htm


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## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

"I adjust the amount of honey for winter to the amount of brood."

What brood is this referring to? The amount of brood that is still being raised in the fall, the amount of brood at the peak of the season, what you expect the brood to be in the spring?

Do bees raise brood all winter long but in lower numbers? Does the queen totally stop laying in the winter leaving no brood until she starts again in the spring?

If you have a strong deep with brood and honey stores how much extra honey in supers does one leave in place for each deep? Do you have to leave an entire super or can you take the honey filed frames out of a super and place honey frames in a number of brood boxes? If so do you put them at the outer edge of the deep so as to not interfere so much with the brood or wintering ball of bees.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>What brood is this referring to? The amount of brood that is still being raised in the fall, the amount of brood at the peak of the season, what you expect the brood to be in the spring?

Sorry, I meant to say the size of the cluster in the brood boxes, but yes, they will raise brood from time to time during the winter. Usually in spurts.

>If you have a strong deep with brood and honey stores how much extra honey in supers does one leave in place for each deep? Do you have to leave an entire super or can you take the honey filed frames out of a super and place honey frames in a number of brood boxes? If so do you put them at the outer edge of the deep so as to not interfere so much with the brood or wintering ball of bees. 

My minimum is one frame of capped honey for each frame of bees. My maximum (and preferred) is two frames of capped honey for each frame of bees. Two gives them enough to build up well, early in the spring. One give them enough to get them to spring without starving.


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## gmcharlie (May 9, 2009)

Michael, very good number ! question, do you stack it in any particular order????


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I do what I have time to do. Usually I manage by the box so if it's a strong hive, I just heft it and leave things where they are. If it's a weak hive, I might move some full combs down by the cluster to replace empty combs and compress the hive more to insure they can get to stores and they don't move into empty comb or have to cross empty comb. Other than not, no particular order.


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