CONDENSING HIVES FOR WINTER

Driving the BEES down and feeding!

Bee Escape, Fume Board, or Bee Brush?

I try to have the hives sized to the bee population density. That way they don't have too much, or too little, space.  Right now about half of my hives have too much space and I'll be using bee escape boards to get the bees out of the upper boxes.

Bee escape boards work well when the nighttime temps are in the 40's to low 50's (or cooler).  The bees will leave the upper boxes to join their sisters around the broodnest to keep it warm.  It then takes them about 2 days to figure out how to get back up, so the bee escape and box on top need to be removed within a 24 - 48 hour period.  (Face the triangle down (underside) and close any entrances above it.  Lessons learned!)

There are other ways to remove bees from the boxes than using a bee escape board.  Some beekeepers use fume boards to drive the bees down, and some simply brush the bees off the frames and into the hive.  If there's only a few bees in the box, I'll brush them off, but if there's a lot of bees, I prefer a bee escape board and a cool night.  A lot less commotion and bees aren't harmed.

Feeding Syrup and Pollen

After I'm done getting the hives configured as I see fit, and removing the last of the honey for human consumption, I'll start feeding any lightweights 2:1 syrup.  An average sized colony in two deeps and a medium requires at least 90 lbs. of honey and/or syrup to make it through a Wisconsin winter.  I use the "heft test" to determine the weight of the hive.  I lift, or try to lift, one side of the hive to judge the weight.  If I can lift it easily, I need to feed it heavily.  If I can't lift it, good enough.  If the weight is somewhere in between, I feed until they stop taking the syrup or I can't lift the hive.  For those that are sticklers for knowing the exact weight, hive scales are available for around $285.00.

The bees will use honey for energy to maintain the cluster temperature throughout the winter. Not much pollen or beebread will be required until the queens resume laying in late January, but pollen (or pollen substitute) is required now in order for the winter bees to develop large fat bodies. This will be their source of proteins throughout the winter and into early spring, and to be stored as beebread for winter and early spring brood feeding.  I put out repurposed Gatorade bottles with pollen substitute powder, and press pollen substitute powder into empty brood frames as discussed in a previous post.

Robbing will Deplete Resources

With the decrease in available floral resources, robbing has increased.  Several members have mentioned putting wet sheets over their hives when they noticed robbing in process, but my hives are out of sight so I wouldn't see that.  I have found it's necessary to do the heft test periodically, until it's consistently cold enough that the bees remain in cluster, to check weight in case they got robbed.  I've had hives that were sufficiently heavy for winter, and two weeks later were as light as a feather.  

One year I discovered that the yellow club hive had been robbed out (I couldn't budge the green hive) after it was too cold to feed syrup, and they survived the entire winter on sugar.  So check the hives periodically and feed sugar if necessary.  There's several methods for feeding sugar, and all of them require space above the top bars of the top box.  My winter covers provide that space, but a 1 1/2" - 2" rim shim works well.  We'll be discussing winter feeding down the road, but for now it's good to prepare by building or buying rim shims and stocking up on granulated white (table) sugar.

-Gerard

PROTECTING AGAINST VARMINTS

 Moths, Mice, and Shrews... oh my!

As usual, after extracting, I put the wet frames on saw horses about 50 yards away from the apiary for the bees to clean up.  They do a great job in just a few hours, and then I stack them in the barn until next season.  

I put a paper plate with paradichlorobenzene crystals at the bottom of the stack, and another on every fifth super up to keep wax moths out. There are other ways of storing frames over winter, this is just the way I do it.  

For those that want to use a moth repellent, use only paradichlorobenzene and not naphthalene (moth balls). Naphthalene is toxic to honey bees and residues will linger in the wax.   

Paradichlorobenzene is available as Para-Moth from most bee supply houses for around $21.00/lb. plus shipping, and as Moth Ice Crystals from Fleet Farm for $4.49/lb. 

The shortening days and cooler temperatures get me thinking about mice and shrews taking up residence in the hives. That won't happen until the bees start to cluster.  

Mice aren't terribly bad because they just make a nest and chew up a few frames of foundation, but the American Pygmy shrew will pluck bees off the cluster one by one to eat their flight muscles. Eventually, the cluster becomes too small to survive the cold.  

Both are undesirable guests so it's good to get prepared for their visitations. Commercial mouse guards are useful in areas that don't have the American Pygmy shrew, but that's not us.  

The shrews can easily get through the openings in most commercial mouse guards so your best bet is to have guards with 1/4" openings.  Just stapling 1/4" hardware cloth over the entrances is sufficient. (If you go the commercial route, verify the opening size before buying.) Shrews climb, so all entrances need protection if  you're to keep them out!

So when to install the guards?  The advice I was given was to get them installed before the mice or shrews get in so you don't trap them inside.  Helpful, huh?   

There isn't any particular date to do this, but when it starts getting colder and flight activity decreases, that's my indicator.  As long as the bees are active, these varmints won't go in the hives because the bees will defend their colony in their typical stinging way. 

Once it's consistently cold, the bees are clustered and the varmints can enter at will.

 - Gerard

AUTUMN is Approaching!

Sedums are in bloom and Goldenrod is winding down.

Sedums are a great late season source of pollen and nectar for pollinators, and honey bees love them!  I'm happy that I see so many blooming in my neighbor's yards. They're a reminder to me that it's the time of year to share some honey with them.

The goldenrod is still going but it's winding down pretty quickly in my area. I extracted honey this past weekend and it's primarily goldenrod honey.  It's darker than earlier honeys, which means it has more minerals, and goldenrod honey crystallizes quickly.  I bottled some today from an extraction on Saturday and it's already cloudy.  It might be that it has a higher sugar crystal content than others, but I don't know.  Kathy says it's the sweetest of the honeys that I extract anyway.

I've put some frames with Ultrabee powder (technique demoed at the last meeting and pictured below) in the hives for the bees to make beebread. In a couple of weeks, I'll put out my repurposed Gatorade bottle Ultrabee powder feeders. The bees harvest the powder every flight day once the goldenrod is about done until it gets too cold for them to fly to gather resources. But not all beekeepers have had success with their bees gathering the powder from feeders, so putting it in the frames is a better method.

In addition to the frames of Ultrabee powder (protein), I've given my colonies a dose of ProDFM (probiotic) to help promote gut health.  I see this as a positive way to help the bees fight disease because if they have a healthy gut microbiome they will absorb more nutrients.  (SuperDFM is another probiotic.)  Some beekeepers treat their colonies in fall with Fumidil-B (fumagillin) but research has shown that this antibiotic doesn't discriminate between beneficial bacteria and non-beneficial bacteria and kills them both, causing the bees to be less healthy overall.  Fumagillin products are banned in many countries, but available in the U.S. 

Most of my hives are within the winter population numbers that I like, but I have at least two that aren't.  I'm robbing brood frames from very strong colonies to give to the weaker ones but there's only a few weeks left to do this.  I've started feeding the weaker hives 2:1 sugar because they don't have much honey stored or personnel to collect nectar.  Hopefully the added brood will get their numbers up and the syrup will load the larder in time.

 - Gerard

Sedum Photo courtesy of Jody Kulick.

Goldenrod Photo courtesy of Gerard Shubert

Ultra Bee Powder pressed in Brood Frame Photo courtesy of Gerard Shubert

 

Winter Preparations Begin

September is the time to start preparing the bees for winter.

Be aware of Varroa BOMBS!

There are two ways that I know of that mites from collapsing hives can get into our hives.  

1. When a colony collapses in late fall due to an overwhelming population of Varroa, the bees abscond and take up residence with surrounding colonies, bringing the mites with them (aka; Varroa bomb).  

2. After the colony has abandoned its hive, bees from other colonies detect the unguarded honey left behind, and being opportunists, will rob out the abandoned honey.  While robbing, mites in the hive will hitch a ride with the bees and end up in our hives.   

Mite Treatments

Apiguard treatment in mid-September after the honey is off.  Apiguard treats for both Varroa and tracheal mites and needs to be administered (~28 day treatment) while temps are still in the 60's.

Some of us also treat in October and November with an Oxalic Acid Vapor treatment, and that is good insurance against any mites entering our hives as colonies around us collapse and their mites become our mites.

Upper Entrance

An upper entrance allows the bees to take cleansing flights in winter when they can't get out of the bottom entrance. It can get blocked by snow, ice, or dead bee bodies piled up on the bottom board.  

This is the time to start thinking about how you're going to provide one.

Fall Feeding

Fall feeding should be 2:1 syrup, after honey for human consumption has been removed.  

Also, this is the time to add/squish pollen substitute powder into an empty brood frame's cells so the bees can ferment it into beebread.  This way the nurse bees will have ample supplies when the queen starts laying in January.

Pollen patties needn't be offered because the bees have no way to store it and it will most likely just sit on the top bars.  Mid-January is the time to start offering pollen patties, when the queens start laying to replace natural winter losses.

It'll be a couple more weeks and then resources will become very scarce, and that's when we'll see robbing activity increase.  I opened a couple of hives recently and almost immediately yellowjackets were in the hives.  I don't know how they get there so fast, but they respond quickly to the scent of honey.  They may already be hunting for hives with easy access.

Check for Queenrightness in the all the colonies. Laying worker colonies can be combined with weak colonies or just killed off with an alcohol or soap bath. Low number colonies can have a capped brood frame with their nurse bees put in from a flourishing donor colony to build the strength on the low numbered colony.

One way to combine a laying working hive. Take the laying worker colony and dump it 30' away. Place a strong colony or swarm colony in the spot of the laying working colony. The foragers and workers will make their way back but not the laying workers. The returning bees may not want to accept the queen they find there, but her colony should protect her. Hopefully the returners will accept her.  Those that don't make it back will die where they were dumped, and those that don't accept the new queen may die in battle.

The season is winding down, but there's still a little time to build up weak colonies with brood from donor colonies, combining colonies, and to take care of queenless and laying worker colonies. There's still queens available, but there won't be for long.  

It's important to check our colonies and do what we can to help them get winter-ready. 

-Gerard