Dear fellow BEE-L'rs,
 
        I have a few beginner-type questions.  I hope that
this isn't too long, but I want to explain my situation
fully.  I just began beekeeping this year.  I live in northeastern
Ohio, near Cleveland, and I have one colony.  I purchased my
(inspected) hive from a fellow beekeeper and installed my package
at the end of April.  With all frames of drawn comb and honey/pollen
stores already in place, the package just took off and I extracted
two medium supers of the most delicious wildflower honey at
the beginning of August.  After I removed the two filled
mediums, I replaced them with two empty mediums of drawn
comb.  I have not as yet used a queen excluder.  The goldenrod
is just beginning to bloom, and I figured that I would leave
whatever honey the bees got from this for winter stores.
After that long-winded exposition, here are my questions:
 
        1.  Should I have only put one medium on for winter
honey??  And will two mediums encourage the queen to start
laying in them??
 
        2.  Should I use a queen excluder in the fall?
 
        3.  When I put in the Apistan strips and Terramycin
(soon), should I mark the super(s) of winter stores for fall
use only so I'll know not to use the frames for spring honey?
 
        4.  If, in the spring, the bees have not consumed all
the fall honey, what can I do with the frames prior to the
spring honey flow??
 
        Thanks for listening,  I've always found some of the
best answers to come from this list, and I appreciate all the
help you've given me in the past.
 
Sincerely,
Kevin Palm
 
 
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Kevin R. Palm
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