THE GOOD OLD DAYS WINTERS submitted by beekeeper Jack

Winter is always a difficult time for beekeepers and honey bees.  That was also the case in 1870 as written in this American Bee Journal article.  This  edition has several articles about wintering bees and the problems that beekeepers were having.    The article is from the minutes of a convention, featuring many prominent beekeepers of the time.

 

Reprints of this article are public domain and made possible by the Albert R Mann Library and the Cornell University Library.

 

Cut and paste the following link to gain access to this edition of the American Bee Journal.

http://bees.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=bees;cc=bees;rgn=full%20text;idno=6366245_6494_003;didno=6366245_6494_003;view=image;seq=12;node=6366245_6494_003%3A1;page=root;size=s;frm=frameset

FOR THE BEGINNER-TWO HIVES ARE BETTER THAN ONE

Follow the link to an article for new beekeepers that starting with two hives is recommended.

http://www.keepingbackyardbees.com/3181-2/

DO A HIVE CHECK THIS WEEKEND

After flirting with zero again during the week this weekend's weather is predicted to be warm (~40F).  Its time to check your hives.  Per the attached blog and video from Minnesota the bees should be on more than 2 frames.  If 2 frames or less the bees are unlikely to survive the remainder of winter in sufficient strength to be able to regenerate this spring.  Instead they just slowly dwindle away.  So if two or less you should seriously think about ordering a replacement package or plan on making a split this spring.

After verifying the bee population is OK you need to quickly inspect if there is enough capped honey to tide the bees through to spring.  The recommended amount is 3 frames of capped honey.  Both the frame count and honey survey shouldn't take you more than 30 seconds.  DO NOT remove any frames; simply view from above.  Be quick in order to not chill any brood the bees may already be raising.

All of this is summarized in a video showing how to make the winter inspection.

http://naturesnectar.blogspot.com/

LATE WINTER STARVATION

If you did a good job of mite control last fall your bees are still going strong.  Being February the days are now getting longer.  In most hives the queen will have resumed laying.  For the hive to successfully raise brood the center of the cluster must be heated to and maintained at about 92 degrees F (just like in the middle of summer).  Once brood rearing has started the bees are genetically programmed to maintain the cluster core temperature.  Nothing else takes a higher priority.  The small patch of brood acts as an anchor for the cluster.  This is when some hives get into trouble. 

February in Wisconsin can still see extreme low temperatures.  Those below zero nights and days cause the cluster to contract in size to maintain the core temperature.  In some cases the cluster loses contact with the adjacent honey reserves.  With brood to keep warm the bees in the outer edge of the cluster, nearest those honey reserves, must make a choice.  Either leave the cluster to get honey or keep the brood warm.  THE COMMANDMENT TO KEEP THE BROOD WARM ALWAYS WINS OUT.  If the extreme cold spell lasts more than 2 or 3 days the bees will simply starve while keeping the brood warm.  If the cold spell lasts only 1 or 2 days and then warms the cluster will be able to expand and hopefully regain contact with the adjacent honey.

   

All beekeepers doing clean up of deadouts in the spring has seen the classic signs of cold induced starvation.  The dead bees are in a tight cluster.  Hundreds of  the dead bees are head first into the comb cells.  Often within inches is a lot of honey. 

What’s a beekeeper to do? 

-A brood chamber well provisioned with food in the fall is the first priority.  Did you provide your hives with fall feeding? 

-Strong hives with larger clusters (covering a larger area) tend to weather the cold spells better.  That’s something that must be addressed in the fall.  Simply do not take weak hives into winter.  Combine them with others.

-Emergency food reserves (winter patties or sugar) placed on top of the brood chamber may get your bees through this crisis if they have already risen the top of the brood chamber and are already in contact with emergency food reserve.    

-An alternate is the Primorsky Russian bee.  Having evolved along the southern edges of Siberia they are genetically programmed to delay the start of brood rearing longer than the European honey bee.  Without brood the cluster can more readily relocate.  

-Also remember that during pre-varroa times it was common to lose 10-15% of hives; most of which were do to starvation.  

FEBRUARY 1st HIVE CHECK BY beekeeper Fred

First a little review.  I took 40 hives into winter.  All hives had been treated with MAQS in mid-August and then with oxalic acid vapor in mid-September and again in mid-October.   Random mite checks showed 0 to 1.6% mite levels, which should be acceptable.  All 1^st year hives were heavily fed 2 to 1 sugar syrup beginning mid-August.   In early October I graded the 40 hives by looking at the number of frames in the upper brood box that were covered with bees.  Strong had 8-10 frames covered with bees, medium 6-7 frames and weak 5 or less frames.   The results were 27 as strong, 10 as medium and 3 as weak.   Earlier I had eliminated several other weak hives by combining them with other hives.   In addition to good mite control it is recommended to NOT try taking weak hives through winter.  So I almost complied with that successful wintering rule.   There were 24 hives headed by Russian queens, 8 by Ankle Biter queens, 5 by Carniolan package queens and 3 miscellaneous ( one Italian and two unknown from swarms).

 

So now we are half way through winter.  There has been about 6 nights with below zero weather.  However, we did have a nice mid-January thaw when the bee clusters were able to relocate.

At this point I have lost 7 hives or 17.5%.  Each loss hurts but the losses are a lot better than last year when I had already lost 33% by February 1^st.   Hopefully I am learning something; if I only listen more closely to what the bees are telling me. 

   

-Losses by relative hive strength are 3.7% (1 of 27) for strong hives, 40% (4 of 10) for medium hives and 33% (1of 3) for weak.  Another confirmation of that wintering rule of only trying to overwinter strong colonies.

- By queen type the losses are 4% (1 of 24) for Russians, 25% (2 of 8) for Ankle Biter, and 60% (3 of 5) for Carniolan.  The Carniolan queens were “run of the mill” package queens from California; so I suspect they have little if any mite resistant characteristics (genes).   Russian and Ankle Biter hives that went into winter as strong hives are all still at 100% survival.  So maybe the lesson here is to replace package queens with more winter hardy and mite resistant strains as soon as possible.

 

-So far there has been a slight difference in survival rates for wrapped (lost 3) versus un-wrapped (lost 4) hives.  In previous years there was no difference.   I will have to wait until spring to see how this ends up. 

 I see in the weather forecast that there are a few more below zero nights in the offing.  It’s another two months before the bees can begin foraging for pollen.  After spring arrives I will try to take a mathematical look that takes into account all factors; queen type, wrapped versus unwrapped, fed versus unfed and initial hive strength.  So far by studiously applying the applying the wintering rules I have seen a significant increase in winter survival over previous years.

The overwintering rules as I know them right now:

1)      Only try to overwinter your strongest hives. Eliminate dinks (weak hives) by combining with others.

2)      Know your mite levels and treat as necessary.  Mites and the associated viruses kill more hives than starvation or cold.

3)      Heavily feed startup colonies since they are unlikely to have stored enough honey to see them thru the winter.   Feeding all colonies after removing surplus honey isn’t a bad idea.

4)      Incorporate superior mite resistant queens in your operation.   (I lost 7 of 9 package queens from last April til now.)