Every beekeeper has to make beekeeping decisions based on who they are according to their knowledge, life experiences, intentions, ultimate goal, why they keep bees, or just plain because I want to. I have put my bees to bed for the winter. I have taken off the supers and now they have to survive the winter with what is stored in those 3 hives. I'm a natural beekeeper, meaning I treat bees with the image of them living in a tree. Natural beekeeping is less expensive, and less labor intensive. I do not buy queens, but allow my girls to make their own , because each hive knows its needs better than I. The honeybee has to survive and I feel they are trying to, and evolving in spite of man.