Winterizing Your Beehive
As the cold temperatures approach you will want to winterize your Top Bar Hive. There are three things to do:
- Install the false back in place
- Install the winterizing entrance reducer
- Insulate the hive
The fall 'winterizing' procedure described here is based on Colorado seasonal temperatures. If you live in a different region, you will need to adjust these dates appropriately. If you live in a very warm climate like Florida it will not be necessary to winterize your hive. If you live in climates where it snows in the winter, Labor Day is a good reference date to keep in mind as the last time you want to take honey from the hive. It is best to leave more honey then you think the bees will need; this is the best insurance for you and your bees. Remember you will have an opportunity to harvest the over wintered honey in the spring. It is hard to tell exactly how much honey one should leave for the bees. The amount of honey to leave for the bees to over winter is dependent on; the population of the bee colony, the fullness of the combs and the average winter temperatures in your area. If this is your first season and the bee's first season, you'll want to be safe and leave them with most of the honey they collected this year, next year you will have a better idea of how much honey comb should be left for the bees to over winter.
As the temperatures get colder the bees are busy sealing up the hive with propolis. After Labor Day, harvesting honey would disrupt the propolis sealed hive and could jeopardize the bee's ability to keep the cold wind from penetrating the hive.
Installing the 'false back' (Top Bar Hives)
The 'false back' is included with the BackYard Hive, it is the top bar with the thin sheet of wood suspended below it. Installing the 'false back' creates a smaller volume in the hive that the bees have to keep warm in the winter months. In Colorado, Halloween would be the absolute latest that one should put the 'false back' in position. To install the 'false back', look through the window and determine where the last of the combs have been drawn out, usually near the back of the hive. Remove the top bar at this location and insert the false back snug against the last top bar with comb on it. The next step is to gently loosen all the top bars at the back of the hive from the edge of the hive body. Try to keep them as one unit as you slide them forward against the 'false back'. Keeping the empty top bars together as one unit will insure that the propolis seal between them is left intact.
For cold climates like Colorado it could be necessary to do an additional step of moving the bees forward in the hive. This is an additional step and is more involved, requiring that you are comfortable with your bees and your skill level is developed. Moving the bees forward is only necessary if the bees have created the brood combs in the center of the hive and have left empty space in the front of the hive (i.e. no combs drawn on the top bars at the front of the hive). Moving the bees forward decreases the hive volume and is an additional measure in cold climates. Mid September is the last time that one should move the bees forward in the hive. To move the bees forward start by removing the empty top bars at the front of the hive, until you get to the first drawn comb. You will begin moving each comb forward, as you do so detach the combs from the sides of the hive as necessary to enable them to be moved. Continue one by one moving the combs forward, like a filing cabinet, until you have successfully moved all the combs to the front of the hive. When the last comb is repositioned insert the 'false back' behind it. Then take the remaining empty top bars that you removed from the front of the hive and put them behind the 'false back'.
The winterizing entrance reducer (All Hives)
The entrance reducer comes with most store-bought hives these days (If not, be sure to get one) and is positioned in the entrance, keeping the cold wind from entering the hive. It is best to watch the bees to see if they naturally begin to reduce the entrance on their own. The bees know best just how much opening they need. The bees that know how to close up the hive entrance will have closed up the entrance with propolis, leaving a few small openings. If by the end of October you have not observed the bees closing up the hive, you will need to help them with the entrance reducer. The majority of bees seem to have lost this capability.
Insulate the hive (All Hives)
In Colorado the temperatures often get below freezing for extended periods of time and it is a good idea to insulate the hive. 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 is an added insurance that your bees will over winter well. During the winter the bees form a ball in the center of the combs. The bees on the outside of the ball near the honey combs will get honey and pass it along to the next bee and continue passing honey on like this until the honey reaches the inner most part of the bee ball. The problem comes when there is an extended cold spell. The bees on the outside of the bee ball can't reach the honey stores because of the cold and often freeze in the process of trying. Often the bee colony will die, not because they ran out of honey, but because of an extended cold period that kept the hive temperatures too low for the bees to move the honey.
Insulating the hive can actually add to your spring harvest because the bees will not need as much of their honey for fuel to get them through the winter. Another advantage to insulating the hive, is that the bees will be able to start brood earlier in the spring, so there will be larger numbers of bees ready to head out for the spring nectar flows. By the end of October you will want to have the 'hive cozy' in place. The 'hive cozy' is R-19 fiberglass insulation that is protected by plastic and wrapped around the hive. A good protective plastic solution is to use 'roofers' trash bags. These bags come in a roll and are approximately 4' feet x 2' feet. Put 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 this insulative jacket. Staple one end of the bag to the lower edge or bottom of the hive, and then wrap the cozy over the top and staple on the opposite side of the hive.
Winterizing the hive is part of our guardianship as beekeepers and insures that our partnership and exchange continues into the next year, when the bees will once again host on the fields of flowers with the hum of the honey bee.
In the third video (Checking the Bees in Winter), take note that the beekeeper does not open the hive fully, but just the very top to see that the bees are doing ok. This is because the need to re-heat the hive afterwards would use up much of the resources of the hive and they may not do as well from then on.
The Beeyard in winter Part 1:
The Beeyard in winter Part 2:
Checking the Bees in Winter: