What about wintering in these hives?

A. Here in Colorado we experience very cold winters. Most of the content in this article is directed toward those who live in cold winter climates. Insulating the beehive, and keeping a full hive of honey is important in areas where you will experience below-freezing temperatures for many days at a time. If you live in a very warm climate like Florida this process will be different and you may need to adjust this information for your specific climate and area.

Because of how the bees use honey over the winter, we have changed our thoughts on when the best time to harvest honey actually is. We find that it is more supportive of the bees to harvest honey in the spring instead of in the fall in colder climates because the bees will need the honey for warmth. Not only do the bees eat the honey over the winter months, but they also take advantage of the honey's incredible heat storing properties as thermal mass. During the day, the honey absorbs warmth from the radiating sun, stores it, and slowly releases that warmth back into the hive throughout the coolness of the evening and night.

The only reason to harvest honey in the fall is to make sure the bees don't attach comb to the falseback. You may need to harvest the last comb or two to prevent this from happening so that when you go into the hive in the spring time to harvest combs, the hive is not honey-locked, meaning that you can not easily access the last comb to remove it and to work the hive. Labor Day is a good reference date to keep in mind as around the last time you want to harvest the back comb of honey.

There are four fall “chores” to prepare your hive for the winter:

1) Move the false back forward

2) Install a feeder cup if your bees don’t have enough honey stored

3) Inspecting entrance of the hive

4) Insulate the hive

1) Move the False Back Forward

The false back is included with both Back Yard Hives. It is a top bar with a thin sheet of wood suspended below it. The false back is at the back of the hive in the summer optimizing the bees space. The falseback is moved forward against the last partially built comb for the winter months. This creates a smaller space in the hive that the bees have to keep warm. Ideally you would want to move the falseback before the first snowfall or extended period below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The falseback should be moved on a day that is warmer than 50 degrees Fahrenheit so that the hive doesn’t lose too much heat. Depending on the weather here in Colorado, Halloween is normally the latest that one should move the falseback forward.

To install the falseback, look through the window and determine where the last of the combs have been drawn out. Usually this is near the back of the hive. Remove the empty top bar at this location and insert the falseback snug against the last top bar with partially built comb on it. The next step is to gently loosen all the top bars behind this newly placed falseback. Try to keep them as one unit as you slide them forward against the falseback. Keeping the empty top bars together as one unit will ensure that the propolis seal between them is left intact.

2) Installing a Feeder Cup if Your Bees Don’t Have Enough Honey Stored for winter

The general rule is that if your hive is less than 2/3 full of combs and fewer than about 7 combs filled with honey, you may need to offer honey to your bees over the winter. If this is the case, we feed the bees honey instead of sugar syrup or sugar water, as sugar is not a natural food for the bees. If your hive is in its first year you can use raw, unfiltered store bought honey, often found at a health food store. But ideally you would want to use honey you have collected from that hive.

Get a shallow bowl or container - it can be a plastic container reused from a grocery store purchase.  It is important that it is shallow enough to slide under a comb or 3, but deep enough so that you will not have to fill it too often (opening the hive in the winter may dangerously cool the bees).  Slide your container under 1-3 combs.  This is important, because when the bees are cold they cannot move very fast or far, so their food source needs to be close.   Place sticks in the container so that when the bees visit the feeder they will not fall in or drown. Besides the combs that the feeder is under, the feeder should stick out 1-2 empty bars or partial combs in the back of the hive. Allowing room to pour the honey into the feeder.

Place your falseback as close to the feeder as you can without disturbing the other combs. Mark on the top of the empty or partially-combed top bar that is above where your feeder is located so that during the cold months of the winter if your bees need more honey you can quickly pull off just that one bar, and pour honey into the hive.   Remember, you should install the feeder in the fall on a warm day. If the bees are warm enough to be flying from the hive - about 50 degrees - then it is a good time to do the feeder install. Be sure to move quickly so the hive temperature doesn’t drop too much. When feeding the bees in the winter, feed them on the warmest winter days. Here in Colorado, there are days that warm up into the 40's and are warm and sunny.

Click here for in-depth information on winter feeding.

3) Inspecting the Entrance of the hive

Bees will normally propolise the entrance of the hive, leaving a few small holes to exit and enter the hive through. Some bees do not have this genetic ability to propolise their entrance for winter. You can help them by using a stick or some pieces of grass to cover most of the entrance. Place the stick or grass at the entrance and leave a space for them to continue to fly in and out of their landing zone. You can identify the landing zone by seeing a darker area on the wood of the hive, from where bees are mostly exiting and entering. We are no longer using the "entrance reducers" we shipped with our hives. Since the weather is changing so much from year to year, and we have many very unusually warm winter days followed by below freezing temperatures, it is difficult for the bees to regulate the temperature in the hive with the entrance reducer in place, since it has only one hole. Often times they need more circulation than that on the

unusually warm winter days. So the stick or grass can be managed by them, if they have not propoilsed their entrance.

4) Insulate the Hive

There are actually many different materials you can use to winterize your hive. You can be pretty creative with this process and find the perfect solution for your climate and situation. However, here at BackYardHive we typically use the Hive Cozy. We like to give the bees the best insulation protection we can; we find that it gives them a real boost when spring comes.

If there is a good store of honey for the bees, insulating the hive is not absolutely necessary but there are many benefits in doing so. Insulating the hive can actually add to your spring harvest because the bees will not need as much of their honey for fuel or warmth to get them through the winter. Another advantage to insulating the hive is that the bees will be able to start their brood earlier in the spring, so there will be larger numbers of bees ready to head out for the spring nectar flows.

You may wonder why we need to insulate our hive when in nature they do not need insulation. Well, actually they do. Wild bees that survive in a harsh winter climate tend to live inside hollow tress with thick walls (insulation) protecting the bees from the harsh winter elements.

For climates similar to Colorado, you will want to have the Hive Cozy or other option in place by the end of October. The Hive Cozy is R-19 fiberglass insulation that is protected by a large plastic bag and wrapped around the hive. A good protective plastic solution is to use roofers’ trash bags. These bags come in a large roll and are approximately 4 ˝’’ feet x 2 ˝’ feet. Because they may be difficult for you to purchase, we sell them on our website. Click here to access our shop page, and just scroll down to find the plastic cozy covers. For the insulation part, we suggest putting two strips of R-19 insulation side by side in the bag. Position the cozy over the hive so the brood combs will be at the center of the cozy. Make sure the cozy is snug against the sides of your hive and tie 2 bungie cords at both ends of the cozy, or use staples to secure the cozy to the hive. However you decide to attach your cozy, make sure the window and entrance into your hive are accessible.

If you need a bit more insulation you can place 2 straw bales next to the hive to insulate the bottom portion of the hive from wind chill. Another option for maximum insulation is to stack straw bales around your entire hive. Make sure that the entrance to the hive is opened all winter to allow the bees to come and go. During the winter the bees may need to leave the hive on warmer days to gather water, or to go on a cleansing flight. So after heavy snowfalls, check your hive entrance to make sure it is open for the bees.

We consider winterizing the hive a crucial part of the bee guardian method. This simple and fun maneuver insures that our partnership and exchange with the bees continues into the next year. In the spring you may congratulate yourself for assisting the bees as you once again witness your environment come alive with the delightful hum of the honeybee.