Sunday, January 30, 2005
WINTERING BEES IS COOL STUFF!
The wintering of bees can be very challenging as they have to spend up to six months in their hives without being able to go out and forage for nectar. Each fall, the topic of wintering bees is discussed at length at our beekeeping meetings as there is much controversy regarding the best way to prepare them for winter.
There are four important factors which must be considered when wintering bees. The first is that the hive must be queen right. That means that the hive must have a queen that is in good condition, able to lay up to two thousand eggs per day. Typically, a queen that is one or two years old should be fine. Many beekeepers change their queens each two years so that they are ensured of having young queens.
Another major factor is the medication of the hive. Mites have caused much damage to hives over the past few years. It is critical that your hives have been properly medicated in the fall so that they will survive the winter without being damaged by the mites.
Feeding is also very important as the bees must last from October until the dandelions are in bloom in April. We remove the surplus honey from the hives in August/September and then feed the bees so that they will last the winter. It is important to ensure that the bees get enough food so that they will last trhoughout the long winter. Many hives have lasted right through the winter only to die in the last few weeks when they ran out of food.
The last major factor is ventilation. It is critical that the beehive have ventilation so that the moisture expelled by the bees is ventilated out of the hive. Failure to provide enough ventilation will result in the moisture condensing in the hive and freezing into a block of ice. This will then kill the hive.
Insulation is also provided so that the bees can keep the heat in the hive and so that the major shifts in temperatures are not felt so much within the hive. You can see from the picture above that I use a plastic insulated blanket that hslips over the hive like a sheath. Being black, the winter sun heats the hive up a bit which helps out.
Many beekeepers have developed different ways to winter their hives. Some beekeepers use large boxes that hold two or four hives and they pack these with wood shaving which makes the whole package quite cozy. The downside is that this is a lot of work and if you have several thousand hives a lot of time is required.
Bees will remain in the hive and only go out when the temperature increases to near zero. On those days, the bees will attempt to do a cleasing flight where they will try to defecate outside the hive.
Winter bees are different from summer bees. Summer bees last about six weeks. They essentially work themselve to death making numerous trips to the nectar sources. Winter bees essentially just hang around the cluster and try to keep warm. Winter bees last about six months.
Once the weather starts to get nicer around end February/March, the queen will start to lay eggs at a rate of about two thousand per day. The cycle will then begin again with the hive building up and as the weather gets nicer the bees will start to venture out in search of nectar. The dandelions and trees provide the first nectar and pollen.
