First-year beekeepers may suddenly feel overwhelmed when anticipating the first Winter as a beekeeper. You invested in equipment, boxes, frames, personal protection, and of course-your bees. You’ve gotten them this far. Now what?
In New York, we experience cold Winters. And if you are near the Great Lakes, you are also used to a lot of snow. Bees can make it through all of this, though, if you have prepped them.
Bees don’t hibernate. They cluster in the central area of the hive, usually starting at the bottom near the entrance. Then as they eat through honey, they slowly move up, eventually settling near the top of the upper box. My experience has been that they don’t eat honey on the outer frames during the dead of Winter, so that honey should be available for early Spring.
So what happens if bees eat too much, or didn’t store enough honey, or they were robbed out by other bees? They can still survive if you planned ahead. Best practice is to only take honey from your supers. Never steal it from the bees double deep boxes unless you have to make room for the queen to lay eggs. A double deep arrangement has plenty of room for food in a steady, cold Winter.
If the Winter has a lot of temp fluctuations, with a lot of warmer days, bees will be more active, fly more, move around more, and actually go through their honey stores quicker. A colder, more steady temperature pattern can actually help them conserve food.
To overcome the unknown, I assume the worst. I don’t want to open my hives mid-Winter to add food. If unsure, you can peek in, but only on a warmer day, with no wind. If they are all at the top, and the boxes are light, you need to feed. Feed them, be quick. But you can do a lot of prep to avoid opening in the cold.
To prep:
- After removing my honey supers early Fall, I treat for mites, using formic pro. This is an organic, natural acid. It will kill mites on bees, and even the ones in the brood comb. It does not kill your bees if you follow all the directions for temperature and ventilation.
- I use small-hole screen wedged into the entrance to avoid robbing if I don’t already have mouse guards. Be sure there is enough room for a couple of bees to walk through at once, wider if you have a strong colony.
- An important prep, In September, I install mouse guards if they are not already in place. I use metal plate guards that allow ventilation. If they need smaller entrances, I wrap a bit of window screen around the plate so that only a few holes are available and still allows air. This gives your guard bees a chance to filter out the Yellow Jackets, hornets, or your other bees.
- I do not inspect my colonies after the middle of September. The queen will likely have slowed down laying, so little to no eggs, and all brood is emerging, so if you don’t put eyes on her, you won’t be sure anyway. And I don’t do any more mites checks. Bees and frames all stay in place. The bees are trying to propolise the boxes, doing their own Winter prep. Leave them bee. They are either queen right, or not. This is not the time of year to pull frames and keep boxes open. You will incite robbing almost immediately.
- Lift the back of the hive carefully, to check weight. Your box should feel like a box of bricks. If it doesn’t you need to feed. If your days are warm, feed 1:1 syrup. Feed, feed feed. Recipe below.
- If the weather is 50* for a high, that is when I start feeding 2:1 thicker syrup to help put on weight. See recipe below.
- In October, when I’m done feeding 1:1 syrup, I put the shim on as shown in the next paragraphs. I like to wait until then because 1:1 or lighter syrup will encourage wax and comb production. This space is to be kept clean and free for the sugar blocks later.
- Insulate any hive that needs more on top.
- I administer Oxalic Acid Vapor, OAV, treatments a few times, 5 days apart in October, and 1 time around Thanksgiving when there is little to no brood. This schedule usually cleans up the last mites. Some beeks like to do and OAV treatment around Christmas (warmer areas) but in NY, unless there was a very long warm period in November, your bees are likely already clean and healthy. And OAV works best if bees are in, but not tightly clustered.
- In November, I place sugar blocks directly on the top frames within the feeder shim. When I close the hive, I am meticulous about lining up all my boxes and seams.
- Remove any snow and dead bees that clog the entrance. Leave the rest of the snow. It’s free insulation on top and all around.
- Lastly, the girls are on their own. I hope they are still all queen-right. I hope mites are all gone. But I should already be sure they have enough honey/sugar block. I should already be sure there is proper ventilation and upper insulation. Everything ratchet strapped to protect from strong winds.
To prepare for winter food, I place a 2″ shim on top of the double deep boxes. I put a large sugar cake directly on the frames (recipe below). This block should be 2-3″ thick and almost the dimensions of your box. Then on top of that shim, you can put the inner cover or equivalent. Some use a canvas cloth, many like me use reflectix (foil bubble sheet found in big building/contractor stores) The last is the telescoping or migratory cover on top. I put an upper entrance hole in my feeder shim to allow cleansing flights in Winter in case the lower entrance becomes clogged with dead bees (normal).
Bees do not heat the whole hive. They only keep their cluster warm, maybe 85 -95*F in the middle. They take turns moving to the center to warm up. They vibrate their wing muscles to generate all this heat. The cluster should be free to move as a group, to access food. This means that you should never keep the queen excluder on your hive through Winter (not called an extruder). If you do leave the excluder in place, the bees can move up without the queen, and she will freeze or starve alone. This can mean the eventual death of the colony.
The rule of thumb when deciding how to insulate or wrap, the cover assembly should have at least 2xs the R-value compared to the sides. I successfully over-Winter my bees with no wrap (as long as there are no gaps between boxes). I use reflectix as an inner cover (low r value but bees don’t chew it, and it helps seal the edges). On top of that, I use a 1″ or 2″ foam insulation board that sits snugly within the cover. I ratchet strap this all together, making sure all my seams line up.
By having more insulation above the bees, this will direct most of the condensation to form on the side walls. This is very important. Bees are like chickens. They can be wet. They can be cold. But they cannot be wet AND cold. If a hive has a lot of side insulation, it might result in condensation forming above, and eventually raining down on the bees. So insulate the top well. If I were going to wrap, I’d only wrap the upper part of the hive just to cut the wind. And if you do wrap, be sure the upper entrance is cut away and edges staple to box to keep their upper landing area clear.
I have used quilt boxes in the past, and may continue to use them. They are an empty hive box, screen stapled in place to hold a pillow case of wood chips or saw dust. They are placed on top of the feeder shim with all the other insulation layers above it. It can help absorb moisture. But sugar on top can do that too.
I like to install all the insulation layers in September if they don’t already have it. Once you do it, you can leave it year after year and only replace if damage occurred to the foam or reflectix. Year-round insulation can help your bees regulate the inner temps better, not overheating.
If you ever find a mouse nest in a hive in Spring, you will NEVER forget this next step. Mouse Guards. I like to use the metal plates with holes or tunnels. Mice will chew wood so don’t count on the wood entrance reducers on their own. If mice get in, they make a horrible mess with their urine and chewing. Ask me how bad it can be.
If you don’t have specialized metal mouse guards, you can use 1/4″ hardware cloth. Cut to the width of your landing board, and 2 xs the height. Fold it a bit lengthwise and wedge into your entrance. Bees can still traverse the openings, but mice cannot. Keep in mind this latter kind of guard doesn’t keep out yellow jackets and hornets. I will also use rolled up window screen wedged into a portion the guard, to allow ventilation but reduces to help the guard bees. I remove this small screen once weather is very cold. The entrance should be kept open through Winter to allow bees to move through, remove dead bees, allow condensation to drain, and also to keep ventilation.
I always feel anxiety through the Winter, for the survival of each and every colony, and then pleasantly surprised to see all the activity in the Spring. Bees are an amazing, productive insect, and their continued survival is something we can help by exercising good beekeeping pratices.
Recipes:
1:1 syrup. ! cup of sugar to 1 cup of water. Or 1 lb of sugar to 1 lb of water. Difference is minimal. NOTICE, ONLY use white sugar. Organic sugar or brown sugar etc can contain minerals and other substances that we deem healthy for humans, but can create gut issues and diarrhea in bees when they can’t make regular cleansing flights. I make a gallon for each hive I’m feeding. 1 gallon of water to 1 gallon measure of sugar will result in more than a gallon syrup. Any excess can be refrigerated, but should be warmed before feeding. Replace any sour syrup from hives if bees don’t consume it quickly.
2:1 syrup. 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water. In order to mix well, I boil the water first, and then mix with my paint paddle and drill. I don’t heat the sugar water. Over-boiled sugar water can change the sugar’s structure or chemistry, which can also be unhealthy for bees. I find the easiest way to make any amount of 2:1 is this: I use a bucket I can ‘see through’. Pour in sugar to the level I want as finished syrup. Mark the level on the outside of my bucket. Boil the water, and pour into the sugar while mixing, until the mixture comes back up to my mark. This will be a nice thick syrup without any complications to measuring.
Sugar blocks. I use 25 lbs of sugar to 1 cup of water. I mix until it is well dispersed (a paint paddle on a drill works great). It will feel and look a bit like damp sand. Press into cake pans or cookie sheets. I have one large cookie sheet I press it all in then pre cut down the middle to be able to make 2 in one pan. This is handy to do if you’re making smaller cakes for nucs. You can either let them air dry, or you can put them in the oven with a pilot or light on. When dry, they should make a ‘clinky’ sound when tapped. If you use too much water, they won’t dry, or they will just fall apart when trying to install. Just a bit of water to dampen is key.
After Winter:
April 1, I open my hives. Most of them still have a few frames of honey in the outer frames because they worked their way up on honey and then lived on the sugar block. I usually have only a few chunks left, but if a hive is out of sugar, I depending on weight of boxes, I might add another small block, or depending on weather temps, I might feed them some syrup. Keep in mind, a lot of bees survive into March, and if some collapse early Spring, it’s usually due to starvation. Don’t hold back from feeding if they need it.
A final note about syrup feeders. Never use an entrance feeder in the entrance. Entrances are the gateway to the whole hive and its resources. Don’t ring the dinner bell to robbing insects by setting it right in front. The best way to use them is put them on the inner cover or directly on the upper frames with an empty box around it, and the covers on. Always feed internally. If you want to feed externally, best way is to use a bucket feeder over a hole in the cover.
I mostly use frame feeders that replace a frame or two. I usually leave them in year round. to keep it easy. If you want, you can replace with frames of honey that you might have set aside just for this purpose. When I place them, I try to always put them on the same side, so I know where to look when ready to feed, and only have to open the cover a bit.
I hope this helps you formulate your own steps to winterize your bees. There are so many ways to do it, and a ton of products you could invest in. But you can be minimal and still be successful. Whatever you do, keep track of your choices so you learn what works best for you. You can still lose bees, but by planning your steps and methods of feeding, you will increase their chances of survival.