Why You Should Remove Honey Supers Before Winter
As the days grow shorter and the temperatures start to drop, beekeepers everywhere are preparing their hives for the long, cold winter months ahead. One of the most critical decisions they face is whether to leave honey supers on their colonies over the winter or remove them entirely. While leaving those extra supers of honey may seem like a convenient way to provide your bees with extra food, the reality is that it's generally better for both you and your colony to take them off before the winter sets in.
In this in-depth blog post, we'll explore the key reasons why removing honey supers before winter is the best approach for maintaining healthy, thriving bee colonies. From better moisture management and pest control to easier spring inspections and honey harvesting, you'll learn why a simpler hive setup is often the way to go when the cold weather arrives.
Winter Bee Management: Why Less is More
During the winter months, bees enter a state of reduced activity and food consumption as they cluster together to keep warm. Rather than foraging and actively storing honey, the colony will primarily rely on the honey stores they've already collected in the brood boxes. This means that the extra space and weight of honey supers often becomes unnecessary and can even create more problems than benefits for the bees.
By removing the honey supers and paring down the hive to just the brood boxes, you can create a more manageable, efficient setup that better suits the bees' needs during the winter. As beginner beekeepers often learn, sometimes less is more when it comes to winter bee management.
Foraged Honey Vs Sugar
Sugar syrup can serve as a viable substitute for honey to help bees overwinter, as it provides the necessary carbohydrates they need to stay warm and active within the winter cluster. Like honey, sugar syrup consists mainly of sucrose, which bees can break down to produce energy. When prepared and fed at the right consistency, often a 2:1 ratio of sugar to water, the syrup becomes similar in thickness to honey and can be stored in the comb, allowing bees to access it throughout the cold months. Though it doesn’t contain the trace vitamins, minerals, or enzymes found in honey, sugar syrup provides the core fuel source bees need to sustain themselves when natural nectar sources are unavailable.
One of the main advantages of sugar syrup is that it can be easily fed to the bees in the late season to help top off their stores before temperatures drop too low for feeding. When bees have insufficient honey stores, a strong sugar syrup solution gives them time to process and store it in the comb as they would with nectar. This flexibility is particularly helpful in areas with unpredictable fall weather, where natural forage might be limited. Additionally, by offering sugar syrup late in the season, beekeepers can prevent the risk of robbing, which sometimes happens when weaker colonies attempt to steal honey from neighbouring hives to bolster their own winter food supply.
As we take our honey crop around the middle of August, this gives the bees plenty of opportunity (2 months plus) to supplement the syrup feeding with locally foraged nectar, which the bees transform within the hive into the honey. This compromise gives the best of both worlds to both the bees and the beekeeper.
NEVER Feed Bees Honey
Sugar syrup is also beneficial from a hive management perspective. When beekeepers use syrup rather than honey to build winter stores, they reduce the risk of introducing any contaminants or diseases that might be present in collected honey. For instance, honey can carry spores of diseases like American Foulbrood, which can infect a hive if introduced unknowingly. By feeding sugar syrup, which is free of potential pathogens, beekeepers can ensure a cleaner and safer source of energy for the bees. Furthermore, sugar syrup avoids issues that may come with crystallized honey in the winter, which bees cannot use unless it is in liquid form. Consequently, sugar syrup offers a controlled, reliable source of food that can successfully sustain bees through the winter months, allowing for a healthy start in the spring.
Preventing Excess Moisture Build Up
One of the biggest challenges bees face during the winter is the build up of excess moisture inside the hive. As the bees generate warmth to keep their cluster cosy, condensation forms on the cold surfaces within the hive. If this moisture drips back down onto the cluster, it can be deadly, especially in freezing temperatures.
By removing the honey supers and reducing the overall space in the hive, you can make it much easier to manage ventilation/insulation and prevent this dangerous moisture build up. With fewer boxes and less airspace, you can maintain more consistent airflow that keeps the colony dry and warm throughout the winter. The most important thing to remember here is the roof must be MORE insulated than the walls. That way, the condensation will form on the walls and track out to the floor of the hive, as opposed to forming on the crown board and falling on the cluster.
My top tip here is to invest in a Poly Ashforth feeder for your colonies and leave it on all year round. I buy mine from Abelo/Lyson. Here is the link - https://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/national-hive/poly-hives-national/ashforth-feeder/
Protecting Honey from Crystallization and Spoilage
Another issue that can arise from leaving honey supers on over the winter is the risk of the honey itself becoming compromised. Cold weather and limited bee activity can lead to the honey crystallizing, making it harder for the bees to consume even if they can reach it.
Additionally, leaving honey in unheated supers over the winter can attract pests and lead to fermentation or other forms of spoilage, especially if temperatures fluctuate. By removing the supers and harvesting any surplus honey, you can ensure that the bees have access to high-quality, unspoiled stores to sustain them through the cold months.
Reducing the Chance of Pests
Winter brings a whole host of potential pests that can threaten the health and survival of your bee colonies. Mice, in particular, are attracted to the warm, sheltered spaces and available food sources that extra honey supers can provide.
By removing the supers and limiting the hive's interior space, you can close off potential hiding spots and make it much harder for unwanted guests to gain access to your bees. This helps protect the colony and ensures that your hives remain secure and pest-free throughout the winter.
Harvesting Late-Season Honey for Yourself
While it's essential to leave enough honey stores for the bees to survive the winter, removing the supers before the cold weather sets in can also benefit you as the beekeeper. Any extra honey that the bees have stored late in the season can be harvested, allowing you to enjoy a honey harvest and avoid leaving too much food in the hive that may go unused.
This not only gives you the opportunity to savour the fruits of your bees' labour, but it also helps ensure that the colony has just the right amount of stores to make it through the winter without excess. As you prepare your hives for the colder months, be sure to check out the queen bees and bee nucs available from Black Mountain Honey for any expansion plans you have for the next season!
Buy Queens - https://www.blackmountainhoney.co.uk/buy-queen-bees
Easier Spring Hive Inspection and Clean Up
When spring finally arrives, the last thing you want to be dealing with is a complex, multi-box hive setup that makes inspections and maintenance a chore. By removing the honey supers and overwintering your bees in just the brood boxes, you can simplify the process of checking for colony health, cleaning up old frames, and getting your hives ready for a productive new season.
This means brood frames remain brood frames and super frames remain super frames. Your brood frames can enter a three year recycling management plan and your supers will last pretty much indefinitely if they are never subjected to any brood. Super frames that have had a cycle of brood become an absolute magnet for wax moth. Don't say I didn't warn you!
With a more streamlined hive configuration, you'll be able to conduct thorough spring inspections with ease, ensuring that your colonies are thriving and ready to take advantage of the first nectar flows. This can be a game-changer, especially for new beekeepers who are still learning the ropes of hive management. Switching boxes around early in the season can be tricky and it can set your bees back if you don't do it right!
Contamination of Super Frames
When using amitraz to treat for Varroa mites, removing honey supers is crucial to prevent contamination. Amitraz, while effective for mite control, is a synthetic miticide that can leave residues in the beeswax. When supers remain on the hive during treatment, the wax in these supers can absorb amitraz, leading to unwanted chemical residues in the honey that bees store there. Since honey intended for human consumption must remain free of synthetic chemicals, leaving the supers on during amitraz treatment could compromise honey quality and safety.
Beyond contamination concerns, the effectiveness of amitraz treatment increases when the hive size is minimised, as the smaller space allows the chemical to circulate more effectively within the hive. Without supers, the treatment is concentrated within the brood boxes where Varroa mites are most prevalent. This more confined environment ensures that the amitraz is not diluted, enabling a stronger and more consistent exposure to the mites. Consequently, the treatment reaches a higher efficacy, as it better penetrates the hive’s core, where mites thrive, without dispersing throughout additional hive space.
By removing your supers for winter, you keep any miticide treatments separate from your honey supers, which means they will last indefinitely and be used again and again to store honey for years to come.
Considerations for Leaving Supers On
While the overwhelming evidence suggests that removing honey supers before winter is the best approach for most beekeepers, there may be some specific situations where leaving them on could be a viable option. For example, if you're using a 14x12 brood box, the extra honey stores in the supers may not be necessary, as the larger brood box can typically accommodate enough stores to see the colony through the winter.
Additionally, if you're in an area with a late-season nectar flow, such as from ivy, leaving the supers on could allow the bees to continue storing that valuable honey. However, this comes with its own set of challenges, as the bees may be reluctant to move that late-season honey down into the brood boxes, making it difficult to access in the spring. Plus, it means you cannot add any miticide treatments in the late summer season and this is the time I have found them to be the most effective.
Ultimately, the decision to leave supers on or remove them should be based on a careful assessment of your local climate, the strength and stores of your individual colonies, and your personal beekeeping goals. As with many aspects of beekeeping, there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and it's essential to consider the unique needs of your bees and your own management preferences.
Preparing for Winter: A Checklist
If you've decided that removing honey supers is the best course of action for your hives, here's a handy checklist to guide you through the process:
Inspect each colony to assess their honey stores and overall health.
Carefully remove any honey supers
Extract and process any surplus honey from the supers
Add feeders into position and feed with 1:1 syrup as necessary until early Oct
Add Apivar once supers are removed (you can feed at the same time)
Clean and store the empty supers in a dry, pest-free environment to protect them for the next season.
Ensure that the brood boxes are properly insulated (poly ashforth feeder) and that the hive entrance is clear of debris to allow for airflow.
Remove Apivar after 8 weeks
Switch to 2:1 syrup or invert for final final feeds (early Oct onwards)
Monitor your colonies throughout the winter, providing supplemental feeding if necessary to ensure they have adequate stores.
By following this checklist and removing honey supers before winter, you'll be setting your bees up for success and minimising the potential challenges that can arise from leaving those extra boxes on the hive. Remember, the health and well-being of your colonies should always be the top priority, and a simpler, more streamlined hive setup is often the best way to achieve that during the colder months.
If you're looking for more guidance and support as you navigate the world of beekeeping, be sure to check out the VIP Mentoring programme from Black Mountain Honey. I am passionate about beekeeping and really enjoy helping beekeepers through our YouTube channel and bee mentoring programme! Want to get the VERY BEST out of your bees? Sign up today to join the programme:
VIP Mentoring programme - https://www.blackmountainhoney.co.uk/beementoring
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A great read but I'm not convinced. It's so far removed from what happens to free-living colonies that seem to thrive pretty well without human manipulation. I think a more hands-off approach using more bee-appropriate habitats and not prioritising honey harvesting over the biological needs of the bees is the way forward. 🐝