"So what can we do to help our bees make it through winter? There is no plan that ensure 100% survival. Bees are livestock. Things can just go bad. But a few things can help.

Typically, most consider winter preparations consists of the following:
1) Put on a mouse guard at the entrance.
2) Lift the hive and see if it has enough stored honey by how heavy it is.
3) Wrap the hive with some sort of insulation or roofing paper.
4) We build a wind break.
5) We treat for mites and nosema.

These might be good measures to take. However, they are not fail proof. In fact, here are three concerns that probably cause our hives to die during the winter that many overlook:

1) Queenlessness. Your hive is most certain to die if your queen is weak or gone going into winter.
2) Winter Condensation. If you seal up your hive too tight, you might increase the overall condensation within the hive and cause this cold water to constantly drip onto the cluster and eventually kill your hive.
3) Keeping stored honey next to the winter cluster. How many times do we hear that a hive died even though there was plenty of honey.

So, here’s my checklist for what you should be doing to your hives now to prepare for a great hive in the spring:

1) Remove queen excluders.
2) Remove honey supers.
3) Examine the amount of stored honey and be sure your bees have plenty. Most beekeepers in the north lift the back of the hive and hope it feels like there is 70 pounds of stored honey. 70 pounds is the approximate equivalent of 1 medium super full of honey.
4) If your hive is short on stored honey, FEED! Feed 2:1 sugar water. Use an internal or top feeder if robbing is a problem. Robbing is more of a problem during the fall dearth.
5) Make sure that your hive has some sort of upper ventilation. It does not have to be much but something. We now make our inner covers with ventilation slots. And we leave our screen bottom boards open all winter.
6) Use good mouse guards, either metal or wooden entrance cleats to keep mice out.
7) Treat the hives 3 weeks in a row with powdered sugar for mite control. This is best started in August.
8) If wrapping hives, be sure to allow upper ventilation.
9) Combine weak hives with strong ones. Most of the small swarms you caught are not going to winter well unless you caught them in May. Do not feel like a failure if you’ve worked hard to build up your numbers, but now you have to slice your hive count in half by combining hives. Combining ten hives into 5 which survive the winter is better than having 8 out of 10 die out.

Much can be said about preparing a hive for winter, but the hive that has the best chance of surviving the winter will be the hive that was very strong all year and has a young queen. Remember, a strong hive is more apt to be pest and disease free, thus overwintering much better because it does not have viruses caused by mites."


LESSON 40: The Beekeeping Year Starts In The Fall
David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
217-427-2678
www.honeybeesonline.com

"I was ten years old on my grandpa's farm when it happened
After all these years i can still hear grandpa laughin'
As he applied that barnyard remedy
He passed his wisdom down to me
You don't reach for the honey without smokin' the hive

Verse 2: (Clint Eastwood)
I remember my first crush was on the preacher's daughter
We were smoochin' on the front porch swing that night when he caught her
We weren't expectin' him home until quarter past ten
When the good Lord taught me that lesson again
You don't reach for the honey without smokin' the hive

Chorus: (Randy Travis,Clint Eastwood)
You don't point your pistol before you check each chamber
And you don't drink no you don't drink when you drive
It's just ordinary common sense to avoid that danger
You don't reach for the honey without smokin' the hive

Verse 3: (Randy Travis,Clint Eastwood)
She rolled into town with rodeo,she was a beauty
And that cowboy saw you wink at her,she was a cutie
The sound of jinglin' spurs caught me dead on a run
He was fit to be tied and you were under the gun
You don't reach for the honey without smokin' the hive

Chorus: (Randy Travis,Clint Eastwood)
You don't point your pistol before you check each chamber
And you don't drink no you don't drink when you drive
It's just ordinary common sense to avoid that danger
You don't reach for the honey without smokin' the hive

No,you don't reach for the honey without smokin' the hive
You're gonna get stung boy"


Randy Travis - Smokin' The Hive (Lyrics)

"Relatively few communities in the U.S. outlaw beekeeping.  However, most have 'nuisance laws' that are intended to outlaw things that most people would find objectionable, such as a barking dog or a stinky smell.  Some communities have laws that put practical constraints on beekeeping, such as limits on numbers of hives and a requirement that the beekeeper provide water for the bees. 

There will be bees in our cities and towns as long as there are nectar and pollen-producing plants.  Outlawing beekeeping tends to replace domesticated bees with wild bees, but does not make bees go away."

Backyard Beekeeping
by John Caldeira


I've never seen a beehive be as big a nuisance to as many people as a single barking dog can be.

  "Traditionally, varroa mites have been controlled chemically. In fact, chemical-based, in-hive treatments have followed varroa everywhere the mite has been introduced. Pyrethroids, organophosphates, essential oils, and organic acids have been used by many countries to control varroa. Initially, the pyrethroid fluvalinate showed high levels of efficacy (>90%) against varroa mites. However, varroa mites have a demonstrated ability to become quickly resistant to this and other synthetic acaricides. This has made many acaricides useless in areas where varroa resistance to chemicals has developed. Further exacerbating this is the issue that many of the synthetic chemicals used inside of bee colonies to control varroa double as insecticides in other pest-management schemes. So, varroa mites have required beekeepers to put insecticides into insect colonies, the results of which are only just beginning to be understood. The effects of chemical varroa treatments on honey bees include reduced longevity of queen bees, reduced sperm loads in and longevity of drones, brood death, and reduced queen laying patterns. Many more effects are believed to exist.

"Because of the reduced efficacy of chemicals used to control varroa, attention has turned to the application of non-chemical methods for limiting varroa populations. For example, varroa are attracted disproportionately to drone brood. This has led some beekeepers to practice selective removal of drone brood from bee colonies after it has been capped. This practice eliminates a cohort of varroa mites from colonies. Also popular is the use of screened bottom boards to lower varroa mite populations. Although its level of efficacy is debated, replacing solid bottom boards of a bee colony with screen mesh can reduce varroa populations as much as 14%.

"Without question, the most significant advancement toward controlling varroa non-chemically has come in the realm of bee breeding. A number of bee defensive responses to varroa have been identified and selected for in natural and artificial breeding programs; the most notable of these are hygienic behavior and grooming behavior. Bees that exhibit grooming behavior use their legs to comb themselves. They do this both to themselves and to other bees in the colony. This behavior can increase the number of varroa that fall off of the bees, thus lowering the number of varroa in a colony.

"Hygienic behavior is the most studied of all of the natural defenses against varroa. Although it is not a behavior specifically targeting varroa, its manifestation can lower varroa mite populations within a colony. Bees that are hygienic can detect many problems that affect brood (American foulbrood, varroa, chalkbrood, etc.), even if the brood is capped, and remove the affected brood. Because varroa mites go into cells immediately prior to the cell being capped, hygienic bees are given little time to 'find' varroa before the cell is capped. As a result, hygienic bees have a refined ability to detect varroa in capped cells, remove the capping, and abort the brood. Often, this behavior can lead to the death of the mite, thus lowering varroa populations. It is interesting to note, a heightened form of hygienic behavior called 'varroa sensitive hygiene' (VSH) has been found in some bees. VSH bees are able to detect varroa in capped cells and remove only those varroa that are reproducing."


Publication Number: EENY-473
Authors: James D. Ellis and C.M. Zettel Nalen, University of Florida