After the bees are tucked in and you wake up regularly to frost or snow on the ground, there are still a few things you can do for your bees. These jobs range from general awareness of the bee yard, to actually opening the hive covers.
It’s always good to be mindful of the hives in case a fallen tree, bear, human, wind, or settling hive stands has knocked the hives over. If you go away for winter, be especially diligent about strapping hives to hive stands and maybe asking a relative or fellow beekeeper to look at the yards every few weeks.
Winter checks are a luxury that those of us with small hive numbers can use to learn more and be in touch with our bees in the “off-season.” Beekeepers with thousands of hives can’t visit them during winter (though they do often begin inspections in early spring, when the ground is still frozen but the bees are already rearing new brood.) So how can these commercial beekeepers confidently walk away until the next spring? They: do all that is possible to kill varroa, ensure each hive contains excess (not just “enough”) honey/syrup, make certain each hive has an upper vent/exit, and make sure the hives are stable and the covers are secure.
Year-end mite control
One important task during cold weather is the last mite treatment. More and more people treat with oxalic acid (OA) during the bees’ broodless winter, which is good since no mites can hide from the treatment beneath brood cappings if there’s no brood!
Here in upstate New York, the broodless period is roughly from Halloween to Groundhog Day (early February). So while our queen and workers are having a rest for a few months, just nibbling honey and cuddling up for warmth, we do a last mite treatment in November and rid them of any remaining mites. We’ve used both the dribble method and the vaporization method, and they’re both fine. Dribbling an OA plus sugar syrup mix is the least expensive, but also most invasive, because you need to open up the hives to dribble between the frames in the top brood box, and then tip up the top box to dribble between the frames in the lower brood box too.
Before starting this method, practice squirting the solution on a mockup hive to get the speed and aim correct. Watching a much more experienced beekeeper do this, we were initially aghast. You can’t open a hive in winter… can you?! But it was fine! We never pulled any frames, which you really shouldn’t do unless it’s flight weather. When treating mites with OA dribble, the cluster of bees is exposed to the elements for less than 2 minutes. Think of rushing a naked baby through the cold to get it away from danger. You wouldn’t worry too much about that brief burst of cold.
OA vaporization uses a device that heats the powdered OA and causes it to become a vapor in the hive. The vapor then reforms into very fine crystals over all interior surfaces, including bees and mites, and the mites are killed. The hives are not opened, and in fact, entrances need to be kept closed to limit airflow during the treatment. Follow instructions with your vaporizer, and remember to re-open entrances when the time is up! In order for the bees and mites to receive the correct dose of OA in each method, the bees should have formed a cluster, but not an extremely tight one, which means outdoor temperature should be between about 38 and 45 degrees °F.
Making sure the pantry’s full
Another important task during the winter for northern beekeepers is to periodically check the hives to be sure they still have enough food. Of course, we all try to send the bees into winter with enough honey and/or thick syrup in their combs, but if the fall or winter is unusually warm, the bees will be more active and will eat their food faster. If that happens we then need to be like southern beekeepers, and feed during the winter. The difference for us in the north is that we have to feed solid sugar, since our bees' guts can’t deal with syrup if they can’t frequently void their bowels during cleansing flights. We feed solids such as Winter Patties, sugar bricks, or fondant, which are all mostly sugar. Another method is giving your bees granulated sugar alone on a sheet of newspaper placed on the top bars, although there is some risk this will drift down between the frames. Another thing that can be fed is a box of honey frames taken from another hive that perished.
So, how does a beekeeper know how much food the bees have? In the fall while prepping for winter, we heft one edge of each hive up to gauge weight, and some of us actually use a tripod with a suspended scale. This can be done in winter too, but if snow or ice prevents it here’s what you can do: First check if the colony is alive by pressing your ear against the top or side of the hive and knocking once or twice. If they’re alive you’ll hear a brief hum in response. Rarely, there will be no noise even though they are alive. Those bees are just so mellow and dormant that they don’t care if you knock. Most bees vibrate their wings at the knock and you’ll hear that quick hum. Road noise or wind can make hearing the hum difficult, and so some folks will use a stethoscope to listen to their hives. Others prefer an infrared camera. (Maybe you’ll get one for Christmas?) That will work fine for wood hives that aren’t wrapped in insulation. We like to do this check once a month starting about New Year’s Day.
So, you’ve confirmed a colony is still alive. Now what? With live colonies, heft if possible. If not possible, peek under the outer cover to see if bees are clustered at the inner cover’s center hole. You don’t want them there, but if that’s where they are you should feed the hive. Seeing them there means the cluster has crept up through the boxes, eaten a lot of honey, and now may only have honey to the sides of the cluster, or may have none at all. This peek takes just a second or so; you just have to see bees or not, and then you can shut the hive until the feed is ready to quickly put on. Always have a veil ready even though it’s winter. Bees can fly up from the warm cluster, and do have enough time to sting before getting too cold to move.
If you happen to find a silent hive, open it carefully in case you’ve made a mistake and they're really alive! But if the bees are dead and there’s any honey, move the heaviest honey frames into the middle of a box and add that box to a hungry hive. This saves a lot of effort instead of buying or preparing any of those other solid winter foods. Don’t try to move individual frames into the live hive; just put the box on and add the covers. Dealing with individual frames in winter is tough and means the hive is open too long. It’s important to remember that feeding honey combs from your own bees is fine, but don’t feed frames or extracted honey from other beekeepers unless you absolutely trust their bee disease knowledge. If their bees are sick or died of disease, the disease could be transmitted to your bees through the combs.
If you do find a dead hive, it’s also a chance to learn. By seeing what the cluster and surrounding comb looks like you can tell why they died. Noting when it happened is also valuable. If you’re not sure why a colony died, take photos and show them to a mentor or email them to us here at Betterbee. Experienced beekeepers can often “read” the combs of a dead colony to figure out why they didn’t survive.
The most likely time for a colony to starve is after January 1 when the days are getting longer and the bees have begun to raise brood again. The more brood there is, the faster the bees use their food. It could be St. Patrick’s Day here in New York with frozen ground and a foot of snow, but the bees are already growing in population, getting ready to burst out around Tax Day to visit maple blossoms and prepare for swarming in May! So be especially aware of hive food stores in the late winter.
Putting the hive back together properly
As always, if you treat, peek, or otherwise open a hive, be certain you have closed it up securely and correctly. In particular, leave the small notch in the inner cover free to airflow and bee movement in and out. This is done by shoving the outer cover toward the notch so the overhang shields it from above but does not close it. Though a monthly hike around to the hives is great in winter, don’t accidentally shut their vent/exit hole while trying to help! Bees will fly out on the rare days above 50 degrees °F to make “cleansing flights.” This doesn’t mean they dust off their wings; it means they go poop, which keeps them healthy. You may see brownish-yellow spots on the snow. Our bees need that small upper entrance for a little airflow and also for an exit in case the bottom board is snowed or iced in, or has a layer of dead bees on it blocking the way out.
Also consider that as winter moves along, the bee cluster moves upwards. The upper hole is easier for them to access than trudging down 15 inches to the downstairs exit. As winter progresses some bees die of old age each day. They fall to the bottom and accumulate. Sometimes a pile of dead bees may suddenly appear outside near the landing board. This is shocking, but means the colony is alive and active, since they were cleaning the bottom board and removing dead bees. During warm weather this happens constantly, but in winter it only happens a few times, so the mess really accumulates. Some people help by scraping dead bees out with a yardstick or even a hive tool (just a few clear inches by the entry does the trick).
These winter and early spring walks to check the hives are valuable and enjoyable, even if you find that some of your colonies have died. It keeps you connected and aware, gets you out into the world, and you can always take your bon-bons with you on the excursion.
