Winter Preparations – Keeping the Bees Healthy

For one that doesn’t keep honeybees, they may think that the responsibilities of keeping those bees ends when the flowers are no longer in bloom. I have had many people ask me if my bees are all snug in a rug like a bug but, it doesn’t end there, not by any means. If the days are warm and your hives are in the sun, your bees will go looking for food sources. They will be looking for a pollen/plant based protein source, whether it is someone’s uncovered feed grain or someone’s bird feeder, they will find a substitute, and which I do provide a substitute pollen for my bees. I also continue to provide them with sugar syrup and sugar candy/blocks as a substitute for nectar sources, as those things are not naturally available at this time, well maybe except for the 2 dandelions and a very short and small goldenrod that I saw blooming.

My preparations for this winter started a several weeks back. I got the hives home from Burr Farm (thank you for letting them stay there for the spring/summer) and gave all the hives a boost of food with pollen patties, sugar blocks, and sugar syrup for about a week. After giving the hives a boost of food, I treated them for mites, Varroa Destructor. Varroa mites can cause havoc on a hive, causing deformed winged virus (DWV) and in high infestations can cause parasitic mite syndrome (PMS). These can be devastating to hives.

It is my preferred form of treatment for mites is Formic acid. It is a natural acid found in insects and plants, and when used for the treatment of mites it breaks down to carbon dioxide and water. It comes in prepackage doses specifically for treating mites. It doesn’t leave a residue in the hive. It also packs a punch and it is fast acting. Though, there are some precautions that one needs to take, when using this treatment, a keeper needs to make sure that the daytime temperatures are between 80 to 50 degrees, the keeper need to wear a respirator as the fumes can cause harm if inhaled, the hive needs to have ventilation, and you cannot feed the bees within the hive during this treatment.

I had my todo boxes checked as went into process; the daytime temperatures are between 80-50 degrees in the daytime, I have a respirator, I have the formic acid, but I have been feeding the bees. I was feeding sugar syrup, pollen patties, and sugar blocks. All of that will need to be taken off, if it wasn’t already consumed by the bees. I need to formulate a plan, a plan B, and a plan C needs to be in the works.

The original plan, since my hives are located on the hill, was to complete sections by where the hives located. I had three at the top, three in the middle, one on the way down the hill, and two at the bottom. I abandoned that plan and decided to remove all of the food off of all the hives and go back and administer the treatment after that process.

The first two hives took all of their sugar syrup and all of their sugar block, but had pollen patties left. I had a bucket to dump the extra, pollen patties/sugar blocks in. What was left, I placed in the bucket, but when I took off the pollen patty for the third hive, it broke and a wax moth larva came out after I place a portion of the pollen patty in the bucket. Eww! I’m going to have to monitor that colony more after this treatment. Unfortunately, when I tried to remove the contaminated patty from the rest of the pollen patties larva fell off of one onto the other and then onto the other. I froze those patties and discarded them afterwards. Wax moths are another nuisance that keepers of the bees need to monitor for, though a strong colony will keep them in check, most of the time. I went through the remaining 6 hives, removed the sugar syrup feeders, pollen patties, and only one hive had remnants of a sugar block. Those remains pollen patties and sugar block were placed in zip lock bags and also frozen, just in case. After all of the food was removed, I started from the top and worked my way back to the bottom placing the treatment on the hives.

After a long two weeks of mite treatment, I went back into the hives to remove it. It was also the same time when plan on I adding new sugar blocks and sugar syrup to the hives. My start wasn’t as I expected. I popped the lid off of the first hive hive and saw no bees and I concluded to myself this hive died, or in beekeeping terms a “dead out”. It felt very disappointing to loose a hive so early in a warm fall. Second hive, popped off the lid and a similar situation. I popped off the top brood box and saw a cluster of bees. Good news! I went back to the first hive and saw the same thing, they were in the bottom box. Not all is lost for these hives! I gave them sugar blocks and sugar syrup. I went through the remaining 7 hives, giving them food in sugar block form and sugar syrup.

Unfortunately, I saw mite activity on majority of the hives, yet it is expected. The Varroa mite is just something to expect in your colonies. When I first started beekeeping, six weeks into my adventure, I saw my first Varroa on a bee. I was really devastated at that time as I just started beekeeping and my colony was so little, I wondered if they would make it through the treatment. They did, thankfully, my bee colony grew and the number of my hives grew. Varroa mites control is part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for all beekeepers. Thankfully that wasn’t the end of my adventure. A little trip down memory lane, here I am 6 years later, wiser but no expert.

Hopefully the mites are in check, I got food on the hives, pollen substitute in the pollen feeders, and I also insulated my hives. I have put the entrance reducers back in place. Those are long bocks of wood that shortens the bottom large entrance to a smaller space. I also placed the metal mouse guards on, which is a metal piece that has holes large enough to let the bees in and out but keeps the mice out of their warm comfy space. I also spent the bees’ hard earned money on gallon feeder buckets. With daylight savings ending here in New England, it gives me ample time to to feed the bees sugar syrup on the weekends, instead of using mason jars, which they could go through in a day or two, which I cannot address daily due to early darkness here in New England. My fingers are crossed for a warm winter and a success for the bees making through the winter. I will continue to keep on making sugar blocks and sugar syrup as needed and provide them the pollen resources that they need. Wish me luck! Thank you for reading and Bee Kind!