6 out of 8 still humming. The clusters are generally at the top of the second deep and into the extra super. I used to overwinter with 3 deeps... But ended up with a lot of extra honey frames. This year I opted to make HIVE SUPERS. Both boxes and frames are marked as such!!! Marked and separate because - they may come into contact with hive treatments... (these are NEVER going to contain honey for human consumption!) These short frames can also be cycled into the deeps for drone brood cutouts.
After this years harvest in mid-August... (another good reason to get your honey harvest in early) They got an extra box to fill... And it's obvious they're using it! I think it's a good idea in this climate zone to over winter with an "extra box" on top.
The two that are dead - were small to begin with. They were my own swarm catches.... they were secondary and tertiary swarms from the same hive. Hindsite being 20/20...I should have combined them or dumped them back in their mother hive because they were queenless anyway.
I'll harvest any extra honey frames out of the dead hives for the other hives if need be. (just put another full box/super on top)
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