Getting Hives Ready for Winter!

Anyone who has followed my travails since last October will remember that I learned a valuable lesson about the meaning of ‘Winter’ to beekeepers. Last year, several folks had given me advice of things to do in advance of Winter. Now, being a farmer and a hunter, Winter for me starts right around Christmas. The shortest day of the year usually hits around then sometime and is considered, by most people at least, to be the start of Winter. Here in Richmond, Virginia, we rarely get any significant snow (well, rarely get it period) or any real stretch of freezing weather before that day comes.

But, this is not what a beekeeper means when he says ‘be sure to get your hives ready before Winter’. Winter to the beekeeper is really what we refer to as the first hard frost. In my area, this averages around October 15, well in advance of the previously mentioned day in December! Needless to say, I was behind the eight ball last year (I didn’t start Winterizing until November, when I discovered this misunderstanding!) Well, this year I am a bit wiser (not much, but a bit), so my Bee Hive Winterzations started this weekend.

Yesterday, I was able to Winterize 5 hives and hope to get another 5 or 6 done today. So far, so good. My goal in this process involves six major points (and one optional point):

  1. Make sure the hive is not honey/nectar-bound. This basically means that I do not want to find honey/nectar stuffed in most of the brood cells. The queen is now laying the eggs for the workers that will see her through much of the Winter. I want those cells open. I have never had this problem, but have heard it is a real risk with hives that you are still feeding (I only feed young hives, so I do not have much risk here). You should move an empty frame of drawn foundation to the center of the brood nest if you discover a honey bound situation at this time.
  2. Find the queen or recent evidence of her (eggs) in the lower brood chamber. If you find them elsewhere, either move those frames to the lower deep or move the whole daggone box to the lower position (this latter strategy might be necessary if  a lot of capped brood is up with the frame of eggs.)
  3. Confirm that honey stores are stocked to either side and above the brood nest. Move capped frames to these positions if they are not.
  4. Put the entrance reducer in place, to help with defense and keeping the mice out.
  5. Record how much honey stores they have. I make a journal entry like this : 0/2/8 Medium, 0/2/3 Deep. This tells me that the hive has 2 partially capped Medium frames, 8 fully capped Medium frames, 2 partially capped Deep frames and 3 fully capped Deep frames. This way, I know which hives to look at first when January comes around (which is the next time that I will pop most of these hives open again.) It also tells me who is strong in stores (I have a couple of hives with two full Mediums, or a full Medium and two full shallows), in case I need to borrow some food for a struggling hive.
  6. Make sure I have a vent up top. I put a stick between the inner cover and outer cover, propping it up about a half inch or so.
  7. [optional] Cover the bottom of your screened bottom boards. I did this last year, but I know of a fellow to the north of me that keeps them open all year long. So, who knows what the best strategy is. This is one thing that I have not done yet, but may do in November, after the elections (when I can use election signs for the covers!)

I was very encouraged by all of my inspections. Lots of honey and lots of capped brood. Found either queens or eggs in all of them and saw a lot of activity at the landing boards (bringing in both pollen and nectar.) Things look good so far, but more hives are on the agenda for today. I now know to expect the unexpectable (is that even a word?)…

Last Cut Out of the Year

Yesterday, I performed my last cutout of the year. A nice couple along Westham Parkway had picked up a hive of been in the ceiling above their bedroom a couple of years ago. Neither were necessarily scared of bees, but both were disturbed about the constant buzzing all night long while they slept! It looked to be a fairly easy cut-out : a bit of crawlspace up above in the attic, the whole thing on the first floor and so forth. I was concerned that the bees might have moved down into the walls, but that was it.

I started a bit later then I wanted to, as I still have two hives that I am feeding and wanted to cap them off first thing in the morning. I was able to start a little after 1 pm and the job was on. In the initial assessment, I had already determined that the odds of getting them through the attic were very long and this was confirmed. The slope of the roof was so shallow that you could not squeeze up to the edge where the nest was.

So, out came the drill and sawzall. After taking a quick measurement, I needed to confirm where the ceiling joists were located. Using a drill, I pushed the bit through the plaster board gently and found open space where I had assumed it would be. The problem was finding the exact edge of the joist (so that I could run the sawzall down it without damaging the joist.) Since they had crown molding, it was hard to get the 8″/on center spot right, but I only had to make one pilot hole before I zero’d in on the right location.

As I began to plug in the sawzall, a couple of tricky bees made their way through the drill hole, confirming that I had the right spot and also causing me to rush to cover the hole with some duct tape (I was probably being paranoid, but it appeared to me that those few bees were ready to tangle. I did finally get the right size section of ceiling off and began to take the bees out.

As always, my adventures are always fraught with obstacles. The bees had gotten into a spot between the trusses and joists that you simply could not get to cleanly. Instead of being able to gently lower the comb into my hive, I had to pull it all through a 4″ by 4″ section. This caused the bees a lot of consternation and may have killed the queen, but I picked up about 15# of bees and maybe 30# of honey. I need to confirm the existence of the queen today, or I will combine them with one of my Nuc’s down in Charles City.

I am also going to feed the honey to the bees in my home apiary (Wilton). Some folks will caution you about feeding honey from unknown bees to your own bees. The honey might have diseases and/or pesticides that would damage your bees. My assessment of this hive was that it was in very good condition and I am not worried about the honey, but that’s me!