After a couple of days, I got the hives ready for winter! After a few cold nights, which some nights went into the 20s, I finally got the gear on the hives to help them keep them warm and safe.
I keep my bees in Langstroth hives, which are basically wooden pine boxes, that holds eight or ten frames. I have 10 frame boxes and I believe that hive is the most commonly used hive in the United States, but there are many hives out there. There are also many ways to to winterize a Langstroth hive as well, some commercial beekeepers even have storage buildings to keep them in much colder climates compare to the New England climates, but I will talk about the way I get my bees ready for the winter.
The first step, as mentioned in the last post, put the entrance reducer in. This limits the space that bees can go into and out of the hive. It also limits any invaders into the hive as well. It is just a small piece of wood, with cuts into it that allows a couple of bees leave to many bees leave, and if it is removed the bees have a full opening to go in and out. Next step, the mouse guard, this is a piece of metal that prevents mice from entering into the hive. The bees generate their own heat on cold days, the mice can chew through the entrance reducer and find a warmer place to stay. The mice also gain an advantage to the food that the bees have stored. The mouse guard will help prevent that. I also put black corrugated board on the front to the hive, the ends of the board are sealed in hopes that the sun will heat the air that is inside to help warm the hive in the morning sun. After that I placed 2″ rigid insulation foam on all other three sides and on the telescoping cover of the hive.
Since the winters have been trending warmer lately, I am continuing to feed my bees 2:1 sugar syrup until the days show that it is getting too cold. I have a feeder that the bees can access through the inner cover hole on top of the hive, I have a box surrounding the feeder to keep it contained and sheltered from the elements. In that box, around the feeder, I filled the space with burlap as an insulator and a moisture wick, and on top of that box, I placed a Vivaldi board. So what is a Vivaldi board? It is like the air vents in your attic and it will allow proper air flow and allow moisture to be removed from the hive as needed.
This is a different plan from what I did last year. I highly insulated the top of the hives with blankets and towels, which were holding moisture and I didn’t put on Vivaldi boards until early spring. I think that this is a better plan, it is closer to what I did in the years before last year. It is hard to tell what you should do when you don’t know what to expect from the weather.
Of course I had a “rookie” moment or two during prepping the hives for winter. Hive #4 was so kind to have a bunch of bees coming out of the feeder holder while I was trying to replace the jar of sugar syrup. It has been quite dry in Connecticut, so I haven’t been using my smoker. I finally got them out of the way and was able to feed them. Hive #1, well I accidentally removed the feeder holder and the bees came pouring out. I “bulldozed” feeder holder back in place to get the bees out of the way and gently swept the bees off of the inner cover. The job was accomplished, I’m very grateful for that.
It is always live and learn in this business. I thank you for reading and Bee Kind!
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