What to do now.... Advice please.

[dfizer]

Hello all - its hot here too.  On to my issue, I have three hives that had two deeps and one super on each.  I don't really know what to do this time of year.  I am reading a lot about people extracting honey now but don't know if that's what I should be doing now.  My highest priority is for the hives to make it through the winter. 
I have been inspecting each of them every two weeks and all seems well from what I could see.  Is there any specific things to be checking now?  What should I be looking for and what if anything should I be doing to insure they make it through the winter?  Also, when should I take the supers off and harvest the honey from them?
Please let me apologize for the naive nature of my questions however this is my third year trying to get hives established and winter over with little luck.  Any advice you could give on this topic would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards
David

[AllenF]

Need more info.  How old are your hives?   How many of the honey supers are full to take?   Are the 2 deeps drawn out?  Most pull honey when the supers are full.  Some wait until the end of summer is SHB are not a problem. 

[dfizer]

The hives were all started this spring from nucs.  The two deeps of each hive are nearly completely full of brood and capped honey - not completely full but mostly.  There has been no evidence of shb so I assume that is not an issue.  One of the deeps (lower) on the strongest hive is not being used with the exception of the initial frames from the nuc.  I would like the bees to fill these but don't really know how to encourage this activity.
The supers are getting filled however not very quickly.  The two strongest hives have a lot of bearding each day.  I believe that the hives are doing well but I don't really know...  I'd attach pics but don't know how to do that on this site...

[AllenF]

If they are not using bottom frames, I would remove the honey super.  Or at least when the super is full, pull it and not replace it.   

[iddee]

First, to get them to draw the outer frames, move the empty frames in and the full ones out.

To harvest, leave 20 frames of honey and remove any more that are fully capped.