How to prepare hives for winter, naturally
- Aunt Plantsy
- Dec 4, 2019
- 3 min read
Honeybees go dormant during the winter and cluster inside their hive. They gather around the queen and continually rotate themselves around her so that not one bee has to stay on the outside edge too long and get too cold. They flex their wing muscles to generate heat!
The video below is made by "ScienceOnline" and not created by myself. Full credit goes to them for this video:
How do beekeepers keep them warm? There are a lot of supplies on the market that help, such as insulation covers, wraps and quilt boxes. There are even things that can be built, such as straw bale walls or other kinds of barriers or roofs that can protect the hives.
But in nature, honeybees don’t have beekeepers to buy or make these things for them, so how do they survive?
First, let’s talk about honey. Besides pollen, honey is not only their food source, it also has the ability to act as an insulator – equivalent to R17 insulation! Honeybees work very hard in the fall to store up enough honey to make it through winter. With that in mind, we won’t take honey from the hive unless there is an obvious abundance of it. When preparing the hives for winter, we make sure they have plenty of honey for food but also enough to help retain the heat they generate.
Since bees cluster around the queen in a central area of the hive, they break that cluster only for getting food – or if it is warm enough, they will do a cleansing flight and get water. It is important that the frames of honey be next to the cluster so that they don’t have too far to go; otherwise, they can freeze. We make sure the brood area is in the center and that it has at least two frames of honey on each side. We also place honey in the box above the brood.
The queen also prepares for winter by not laying eggs so there will be enough food for the existing winter bees. Speaking of winter bees, did you know that they will kick most, if not all, of the drones (male bees) out of the hive? This is done because in the winter, drones only use up valuable resources and don’t help maintain the hive. Hmmm, sound familiar?
In nature, you may see several entrance holes in a tree full of bees, and for good reason. Having bottom and top entrances creates a “chimney effect,” which means that the warmer moist air can escape, helping to stop condensation from building up. Some condensation is normal and helps the bees obtain water, but too much can cause water to rain down on the bees and they can freeze. So, with man made beehives, it is important to have bottom and top entrances. This also allows the bees to leave from the top, if the bottom entrance is blocked by snow. Also, with man made hives, it is necessary to remove extra top boxes to avoid drafts and keep heat from escaping.
Side note: a tree that bees live inside of is, obviously, never opened; similarly, beekeepers should not open their hive boxes when temperatures are lower than 50 degrees.
Lastly, in nature, trees with tiny entrance holes usually don’t have problems with mice entering and destroying the hive. With man made hives where mice are an issue, a mouse guard could be a lifesaver for your hive.
My husband and I practice natural beekeeping methods in every way possible to mimic bees living in nature. However, we have put in place the ability to screen or build a structure around the hives if the snow is really bad. Here in Arizona, though, that is rare.
In 2018 we moved our hives to a bee sanctuary on our property. The silver caps in the pad are where poles may be added and connected with plywood, for example, if a wind screen is needed.
Please visit me online at www.peasbeewithewe.com
You can also view the following:
Comments