Hi Ken, I'd say the most important thing for growing "fat bees' is to be sure to control varroa levels in your colonies between now and early winter.  The bees don't need more supers built to ensure their overwintering, and it's great that you have them in good forage to continue building up their stores in the deep boxes. I'd take off the supers and let them concentrate on their deeps now. And test and medicate to knock mite levels back if called for. In my experience, wax building is tied into swarm season and late spring. Swarms are the very best comb drawing bees, as they are geared up to build a new realm :)

What is a good target hive weight for overwintering here in the TV valley floor? I see that SG likes a 60# deep.

Is there no late season nectar flow here? Is there a calendar published that shows our expected local nectar flows?

Richard, bees are quite naturally forage-focused, with their populations ebbing and flowing to track along with food supplies. There is the big world around us of wild and agricultural blooms, and there is our own small world of forage  we can control more.  Big forage in western Oregon is wild blackberry blossoms in June and all of the ag crop pushes with crimson clover, berries and fruit.  If you have the space, you can follow Ken's great example of planting for the bees, AND you can control when the bloom period is by plant choices (bloom period can vary) and when you put the seeds in the ground. In our long growing season area (even longer now with climate change),  people plan in the spring for summer harvest and can replant or plant in summer for fall blooms. (This will require good watering protocols) I had a great late season (October) crop of sunflowers that I planted jut for my bees and birds in July last year, so have done the same again this year. It's a great top off of nutritious pollen just before bees tuck themselves in for the winter.

Hmmm. I just checked my hives yesterday. They each have an 8-frame brood box loaded (85-90%) with brood, maybe 1 frame total of stores each, and a medium (over an excluder) already packed with honey from the 1:1 syrup I've been feeding them. I plan to give them some of that for the winter, along with a candy board, and freeze the rest to feed back in the spring. At the end of July I removed the honey supers I plan to extract. My mite counts are almost nil.

Given how full the boxes are, I added a 2nd medium for them to build comb and fill as they want, while I continue to feed them 1:1. I was going to go to 2:1 but as dry as it is I think they need the added moisture.

Based on what was stated earlier in this thread though, should I not have added another medium box? If I start feeding 2:1 syrup, where would they put it without that 2nd box? Where would they even put the 1:1? Or should I be forcing them to replace some of the hatching brood with stores, meaning don't put on the 2nd medium? But seems too early for that.

I guess it's a good problem to have, but I'm at a loss as to what my box structure should look like at this time of year. Suggestions?