At the end of the season, you may have a colony that doesn't have a full set of frames drawn and ready for winter. This happens for a variety of reasons, but the most common one is that the colony was started late (for instance, a late split or swarm) and it simply did not have the time – or foraging opportunities – to gather enough winter resources.
If you have surplus frames of honey (and pollen) from other hives, you can donate them to the under-supplied hive to make up the shortfall. If you have empty drawn comb, you can feed 2:1 sugar syrup to fill their pantry. But, if they have only undrawn foundation to work with, the bees may be reluctant to draw out the additional comb to store the syrup. As the days begin to get cooler, they also may not have enough bees to generate the high temperatures necessary to get the wax-making job done.
Perhaps, at the end of the summer, the colony has only 13 to 17 frames drawn and in use, in a double-deep hive. That's an awkward, box-and-a-half quantity.
One option is to reduce the hive down to match the number of bees and the resources they do have, eliminating unused empty space. You could remove boxes, or move the bees into nuc-sized equipment for overwintering. But this might mean abandoning some filled frames in order to fit the colony into the smaller spaces.
A better solution: custom tailor the interior cavity space to match the resources the bees have (including any donated or filled-with-syrup frames they are allotted).
This is simple to do. And it is beneficial, too, because it organizes a colony in a more vertical arrangement. This reduces the risk that the bees may get "caught" out on one side of the hive and are unable to cross over to the other side when they need to move to fresh frames of honey during the winter.
First, count the total number of frames that the colony has, will get donated, or in the case of empty, drawn comb, that can reasonably be filled with syrup. Then divide that number by the number of boxes you plan to have in your winter hive. Typically, this will be two or three boxes. And then plan on having half (or one-third) of the frames in each box, with any odd frame assigned to the upper box. These frames will be centered in the boxes with the remaining space on either side filled up by wood follower boards and foam insulation panels that you construct. In effect, you will be creating a reduced-width, box-within-a-box. Another beneficial side effect of this plan will be adding a layer of internal insulation along the sides of the hive.
Most people know that double-nucs (usually four frames over four, sometimes five over five) do quite well as overwintered colonies, even in very cold climates. Here at Betterbee, we overwinter hundreds of them every year. The idea of a custom-tailored interior space works along the same lines, except that it de-couples the number of frames that are used from the size of the equipment. You can winter four over fours, or double fives, sixes, sevens, etc., using up even that last odd frame, so none of the bees’ hard work is left behind.
And in the spring when the colony starts to build out, the interior cavity space can be easily – and gradually – expanded simply by removing a foam panel or two, and inserting an additional frame when needed. This elasticity of space avoids one of the problems of overwintered nucs when there is an unexpected burst of nectar resources before they can be moved to full-sized equipment.
XPS foam (industry shorthand for “expanded polystyrene”) may be green, pink, or light blue depending on the manufacturer. It is made for insulating building foundations and is available in 2’ by 8’ panels. If you can find them, larger panels may be less expensive per square foot, though harder to take home in a car. The easiest thickness to cut and use in hives is the 1” material. Two-inch thick XPS is available, but it is harder to cut and fit into bee boxes, and usually isn’t any less expensive than using two, 1” thick panels.
Measure the interior width of the box.
Multiply the number of frames you plan to leave in each box by 1.375, and subtract this amount from the interior width measurement.
Subtract twice the thickness of a wood follower board.
Subtract 1.5” for working space.
Divide the remaining space by 1 to get the number of foam panels needed, per box in the hive stack. Ignore any fractional amount left over unless it is more than ¾ inch, in which case add an additional panel.