I once let the bees overwinter with fall honey but no longer. If
you are in a warm climate where the bees can get winter cleansing
flights, no problem, but in Maine you can end up with dysentary.
Fall honeys, in general, have more solids that the bees have to
void. Plus, some tend to ferment more easily, especially honeydew
which seems to show up in the late summer and fall. And they
crystalize at the drop of a hat. All of my fall honey is solid by
December while my summer honey has stayed liquid for several
years. Why subject the bees to that?
Plus why let the bees have the best honey of the year?
I did not come up with this on my own, but follow George Imire
and Tony Jadczak's teaching and practice, which is to pull honey
in late July and put the empties back on over the inner cover.
Bees clean out the summer honey and put it down and fill the
deeps with summer honey, The later fall honey goes into the
supers over the inner cover.
Using this technique, my winter losses have dropped to near zero.
I get more honey than I did when I overwintered on fall honey
because the bees are exceptionally healthy coming out of winter.

Bill T
Bath, ME