Hello, I'm in NE OH, and run a dozen or so colonies for extracted honey. 

This spring was a great honey season, summer was ok', and late summer was a month-long dearth, as is typical. And as is pretty typical, my production colonies have next to no honey in the brood nest. Looks like fall honey will be a bust, whether due to cooler temps this fall or the dry spring/wet summer, who knows. The hive population is still large enough that there are still more bees than can fit into a hive body without honey supers, so taking them off is going to be a ridiculous amount of work (and result in a crazy crowded hive). I use queen excluders and find them to be a big time saver.

Any favorite methods for preventing such a lack of honey in the brood nest of production colonies being run for honey? 

Certainly I can feed, but not with honey supers on. Well, not with uncapped honey supers on. By the time I would remove them due to bee populations dropping due to the normal winter population reduction, I can no longer feed sugar syrup due to the temps being too cool for the bees to reliably take the syrup.

Certainly I can leave a honey super, but that is a bummer, and I don't like having to deal with the brood and pollen in the honey super.

Looking to hear some stories or at least knowing I'm not alone in this one!

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