> This does have side effects including that sometimes the bees put all the
honey in the supers and even abandon the first story altogether.

The above is very common in my area, and I assumed it to be basic colony
behavior.
We remove any lower boxes not containing brood prior to winter.
When I pop the lid of a double-deep hive in autumn, I don't want to see any
bees, unless I use a flashlight to look down between the combs of honey to
see the cluster well below the honey.

I can't imagine taking a colony into winter with the cluster already at the
top of the hive -- to me the upper body should be full of honey, with the
cluster containing the last brood well below.
This is what I'm not understanding about your practices on the East Coast.
What am I missing?


Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com

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