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Overwintering Honeybees: 5 Things You Need To Know!

August 29, 2017 by Maat

Overwintering Honeybees: 5 Things You Need To Know!

I’m no bee expert, and I’m certainly not an expert in overwintering honey bees.

Table of Contents (Quickly Jump To Information)

  • I’m no bee expert, and I’m certainly not an expert in overwintering honey bees.
  • 5 Things You Need to Know About Overwintering Honeybees
  • 1. How to Feed Honeybees
  • 2. How Much Honey to Leave in the Hive
  • 3. How to Ensure Your Hive is Strong Before Cold Weather Hits
  • 4. How to Weatherproof Your Hives
  • 5. How to Determine Whether or Not a Hive Box Needs to be Opened
    • You can find more resources to help you overwinter your bees here!

 

But bees are a growing interest of mine – and having a bee-keeping mentor is really, really important to having success with our honey making friends

 

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So, I invited my friend Jessica from the Faithful Farm Wife to educate us about overwintering honey bees!

 

Take it away, Jessica!

 

5 Things You Need to Know About Overwintering Honeybees

There are 5 crucial things that you need to know before overwintering honeybees.

 

Honeybees are unique and special insects. They provide food for themselves and for us, they are necessary for most plant growth, and an entire colony can survive a winter together whereas other insects, like wasps, all die except the queen.

 

In order for the colony to survive in the winter, they have to be prepared. If the colony is in one of your hives, then it is up to you to make sure that they are ready for the cold season.

 

There are 5 crucial things that you need to know before overwintering honeybees.

 

1. How to Feed Honeybees

It isn’t necessary to feed bees in the spring, summer, and fall if there are plenty of flowers, trees, etc in bloom for them to collect pollen & nectar from.

 

However, it is a good idea to start feeding in the fall to help the bees make more honey without expending too much extra energy. Feeding should continue as needed throughout the winter. There are several different ways that you can feed your bees:

  • Sugar Water– This would need to be fed before winter because the bees won’t accept liquid food when it is cold. Let them have it while the weather is still warm so they can stock up on their honey stores.
  • Pollen Patties
  • Sugar Cakes
  • Grease Patties– This food source doubles as mite control!

 

Keeping bees healthy in winter is crucial for sustainable beekeeping. Find out what you need to know about overwintering honeybees in your apiary!

2. How Much Honey to Leave in the Hive

The amount of honey needed throughout the winter is something that varies from region to region. Consider where you live, the length of winter, and the extreme low temperatures when you are extracting honey.

 

Keep records of how much honey you extract each season to determine which hives are the most efficient.

Keeping bees healthy in winter is crucial for sustainable beekeeping. Find out what you need to know about overwintering honeybees in your apiary!

 

Good rule of thumb:

  • Warmer states (southern U.S) ~ 40 lbs
  • Colder states (northern U.S) ~80 lbs
  • Happy Medium states ~ 60 lbs.

3. How to Ensure Your Hive is Strong Before Cold Weather Hits

You should be checking your hives periodically throughout the spring, summer, and fall months for parasites and any other issues that might wipe out or weaken a colony. You should also check that the bees are filling the brood box and that the honeycombs are filling properly.

Keeping bees healthy in winter is crucial for sustainable beekeeping. Find out what you need to know about overwintering honeybees in your apiary!

 

What to check for:

  • Hive Beetles
  • Varroa & Tracheal Mites
  • Wax Moth
  • Overcrowding
  • Sufficient Honey Production
  • Slowed Brood Production

4. How to Weatherproof Your Hives

  • Coat the outside of the hive with Tung Oil to repel water…This is not necessary if the hive is painted.
  • Add entrance reducers to reduce the amount of cold air that can enter the hive.
  • Install a Mouse Guard. Bees are busy trying to stay warm in the winter so they can’t guard the entrance well. A mouse guard can do this job for them.
  • Close screened bottom boards or switch to solid bottom boards.
  • Add a Quilt Box to minimize moisture in the hive.
  • If you are in a very cold climate, you might want to wrap your hive in tar paper or a wool wrap.

5. How to Determine Whether or Not a Hive Box Needs to be Opened

The inside of the hive should be about 90 degrees F. The bees do a good job of maintaining this temperature by vibrating their wings rapidly to create heat.

 

When you open the hive, you break the propolis seal that the bees created to keep the cold air out and they have to expend extra energy to warm the hive back up.

  • Do not open the hive when the temperature is 55 degrees or below if there is no obvious issue.
  • If the bees are starving or you notice dead bees, open the hive to diagnose, feed, and/or treat them, but do this quickly.

You can find more resources to help you overwinter your bees here!

Filed Under: Bees Tagged With: bees, honey

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  • I have a love /hate relationship with this tiny rooster. He's all of 3 inches high but loves to attack my feet. I seriously have no idea why.
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He's a rescue and I'm pretty sure the reason I got him is because, to someone not experienced with chickens, he can be scary.
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But I wear boots in my coop all the time. So, he's essentially a mosquito. It's pretty cute.
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Sometimes he wanders off and I have to catch him. He doesn't like that, and protests loudly. But he doesn't attack me. He just squaks loudly.
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But when I have a treat? He's my best friend. What a character!
  • Well we've been battling an ice storm for the past couple days (which is why you didn't hear from me yesterday). Unfortunately, on Saturday, the wind blew the door to my coop shut, so the fluffy butts had to deal with the ice and wind.
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It was so icy here that several telephone poles bent, and the electric wires were nearly on the ground (not on our farm, on a main road).
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About half my flock was wet and cold and shivering. So, everyone went into dog crates and into the cabin, where I could run a heater safely.
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The worst of the lot - my 2 cochin bantam hens - also got their feathers blown dry.
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I don't regularly blow dry my flock, but these 2 hens LOVED it! They just sat there while the hair dryer was on low heat, and enjoyed hanging out with me.
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I think they liked the warmth - they were pretty cold after all! They got plenty of WormBGone (which has warming herbs in it) and their layer feed that we blend ourselves, so they were happy!
  • I'm happy to tell you that reader Diane reports her rooster, Victor, is doing much better after an episode of mysterious blindness. .
Diane emailed me a week ago to ask advice to help Victor out. He suddenly went blind, without much explanation.
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There's a lot of reasons why any animal can go blind temporarily, and Diane did the best thing, which is consult a veterinarian. .
I'm glad to hear Victor's sight has returned, and he's back with his lovely girlfriends in their coop, just in time for Valentine's Day! ❤
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I'll be sending Victor and his girlfriends some BEE A Happy Hen to celebrate!
  • Now that the days are getting longer, it looks like I need to remove even more young roosters from the main coop. There were 3 that didn't cause any trouble over winter (very pretty ones, too), but now that spring is clearly on everyone's mind, they're bothering the hens too much.
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Most of these roosters are ones I bred - Easter Egger mixes that have pea combs and beards. They're very pretty!
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In the tornado last week, one of my temporary coops lost its life, so I'll probably use pieces of that to complete a new coop for these roosters, and give each one a couple ladies.
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I have a feeling by the end of this year, we'll be over run with lovely, bearded chickens. These guys do carry the blue egg laying gene - one's mother was Mama who laid olive colored eggs and the other's mother was Hawk who laid blue eggs).
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If paired with hens who carry the gene, their offspring might lay colored eggs as well.
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We're still getting green eggs from someone (I still haven't figured out who), and I think when the remainder of the roosters leave the coop, it'll prompt my other hens to start laying.
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And this year, I'm having Black Copper Marans hens sent to me, so pretty soon, we should have very colorful egg baskets every morning!
  • Well, we finally had a sunny day. It took nearly 2 weeks, but it finally happened!
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Now, we wait for the flood waters to recede. Last year, the township graded the road we live on, which used to get flooded whenever the rains were bad enough (like in the last 2 weeks).
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Well, they didn't bother to install any sort of drainage system, so one of my fields is completely bogged down under 18-24 inches of water.
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Yes, they'be been notified, and no, I'm not pleased. It essentially trashes 1/3rd of the usable land on our farm. I'm letting my husband handle this one (for now), because he's nicer than I am about these matters.
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Around here, there's seriously days when I wish I stocked herbs stronger than calendula, lol!
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I WAS considering putting a coop in that back pasture (which has my tiny home in it), but for now, I need to wait until they sort out how to prevent the field from getting soaked.

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