Wintering hive/2013 Spring

[Terry N]

I got into bee keeping bee  3 years ago...do not feel I have the time to give to the hobby as I should......my question is if I do nothing to the brood boxes and leave the 2 supers on till Spring of 13 what happens.... do the bees eat all the honey and where would or how could I start early and fresh next year.Does the queen start laying brood on the lower boxes as may go with a queen excluder to keep her from laying brood in the supers.

[AllenF]

Bees will end up moving the brood area up into the honey supers by spring.  Also, there will be a lot of extra area for the bees to heat above them.  Use an excluder and the bees may move the winter cluster into the honey supers following the honey and leave the queen below to freeze. 

If you do not want to harvest the honey, put out an ad here and someone nearby will pull that honey for you.

[Terry N]

Thanks Allan, what about 1 super left on?