First harvest ever: one deep + one medium — how much can I actually take?
Minnesota first-year here, trying not to get greedy. My April package has done brilliantly: the deep is wall-to-wall brood and bees, and the medium above it is maybe 80% capped honey. No other supers on — I was late adding one and they backfilled instead.
I keep seeing the rule of thumb 'leave 40-60 lb (18-27 kg) for winter'. If a full medium holds roughly 40-50 lb, does that mean the medium basically IS their winter allowance and my first 'harvest' is... nothing? Or can I sneak two or three frames and let them backfill from the late flow?
I'd honestly be happy with a single jar for the windowsill, I just don't want to kill them for it.
#first-harvest#winter-stores#beginner#minnesota
▲ 17 votes💬 4 replies✅ Solved
4 replies
QuebecBees · Jul 2, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer
Fellow cold-climate keeper (Quebec) with the unfun answer: 40-60 lb is a rule of thumb for MILD winters. For zone 3-4 winters like yours and mine, the usual target is more like 80-90 lb — which in practice means a full deep of stores plus most of that medium, i.e. exactly the configuration your bees are building. First-year package in Minnesota: take a frame, maybe two if the goldenrod flow is kind in September, and call the windowsill jar your harvest. Year two, with drawn comb ready to go, they'll bury you in supers. The drawn comb is the real first-year crop.
GeorgiaWes · Jul 2, 2026
What QuebecBees said, with the footnote that the 40-60 lb figure isn't wrong, it's just written for people like me — Georgia colonies fly in January. Winter stores advice is the most location-dependent number in beekeeping. Find what your state association or extension recommends for MN specifically; I'd bet it says 80+ lb and a candy board for insurance.
BethsBees · Jul 2, 2026
I was exactly you last summer in Ontario — took two frames off my first-year colony, felt like a thief, and they still came through winter with stores to spare (I did add a sugar brick in February as cheap insurance, barely touched). The single-jar first harvest tastes better than any bulk harvest ever will, I promise.
mn_newbee · Jul 3, 2026
Thank you all — one frame it is, crush and strain, windowsill jar with a hand-written label. Everything else stays on the hive, and I'll look up the U of M extension numbers tonight. Feels good to have a plan I won't regret in January.