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Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter November 2005 |
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Preparing Honeybee Colonies for the Period of Dormancy and Cold Weather Ahead First of all, and has been mentioned, colonies should be checked for the presence of mites and to what extent of the count involved. Any place throughout the Midwest beekeepers can ill afford extreme losses due to lack of attention of management in helping the bee colonies to survive. The cost of replacing bees today is too high to let a few aid to wintering go undone. During the months of August and September colonies should be inspected to make sure there is adequate brood to be hatching later to provide a good healthy colony with sufficient bees for wintering. At the same time making sure that the colonies are free of disease. Soon after the surplus honey is removed the lower entrance should be reduced to the normal 3/8ths X 1” opening. Next, check each and every colony for weight. Located here in Central Iowa we are at 42o latitude and we found it best if colonies in two standard brood chambers weigh 115 to 120 pounds with out the outside cover. This will assure enough stores to last until weather permits colony management in April. A word of caution, there are occasions when bees store excessive amounts of pollen and full combs of pollen will provide the weight but may result in a shortage of honey that was intended. If in Minnesota more wight might be preferred. If further south lesser amounts may be required.
Next, insert a middle entrance between the two brood chambers simply by placing a 1” wide cedar shingle on each side of the lower chamber with the thick end forward. Use two pieces of wood lathe 7 ½ “ long in front leaving approximately 1” X 3/8” opening. This is preferred over drilling a hole in either chamber as the wind does not seem to penetrate this type of opening. Prior to installing the middle entrance make sure that there are two or three combs of open cells in the upper brood chamber. They can be brood or open cells partly filled with honey. This is where the colony will collect and cluster during cold days. In spite of what is always assumed bees do not prefer to cluster on full combs of honey. These open brood combs will also be available for the first brood which may occur during late February and March, getting the colonies off to a good start of young bees in the Spring. Now the final touches: Cover the hole in the innercover with screen or a piece of thin metal so the bees cannot get to the Styrofoam that is then placed within the rim o f the innercover. Either ¾” or 1” Styrofoam. If a number of colonies are to be winterized place two colonies on H frames or on 2 X 4’s and wrap them together. This saves wrapping material. From 15 pound, black asphalt paper 36” wide, cut a piece 112” long. Cut that in half the long way which gives you two pieces or a wrap around for four colonies. Six inches from one end cut a slit 2” from the bottom and another slit 33” from the first. This will provide a lap in front so the paper covers the entire bottom board. Wrap around the two hives and fasten where the paper laps over near the front side of the hive with a 1’ lathe using one No. 4 nail. Now all that is needed is a cover. Cut another piece of the paper 48” long and 36” wide. Fold the corner of the cover paper as covering any box. This gives an allowance of four pieces of lathe 1’ long and two pieces 16” long to be placed on each end of the pair of colonies held in place by one No. 4 nail in each lathe. Having accomplished all this your work with your colonies is over until next year com April 2006. To begin with you will likely find colonies that will not have sufficient stores for the entire time. If a number of colonies are involved simply take combs of honey from the extremely light ones and bring more colonies that are near the weight to the proper weight and eliminate the lighter ones. You will benefit by not having to worry about feeding in the cool weather of Fall or Spring. Bees do better on honey. Using this method will reduce colony losses dramatically. Submitted by Glen L. Stanley
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