Hi Folks,
Here's the situation - I have an 8 frame hive with 2 deep hive bodies and 2 shallow, with medium and deep size frames in the top shallow boxes. This leaves a gap of about 3" between the honey supers and the top of the 3 medium frames in the brood boxes. The bees have drawn out the 3 medium frames and continued building comb on the bottom of the frames, reaching down to the lower frames in the brood box. The other 5 deep frames have starter strips and the bees are just starting to work on them. The 3 medium frames are 1/2 full of capped honey and about 1/4 full of nectar.
Should I remove the top boxes, condensing the hive for winter or leave it as is - hoping I can feed them enough to fill the space ? I'm worried about the extra space adding to cold & moisture issues.
Thanks in advance for any help. This forum has been very helpful.
Nardi