GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: beekeeping 101

Will My Bees Survive Winter?

Helping your bees survive winter is one of the hardest parts of beekeeping. I have several videos about winter bee survival and feeding. A reader asked:

It’s been in the 20’s and 30’s for the last two weeks or so with another week of the same temps. If my bees are clustered will they be able to feed and keep clustered enough to survive until the weather breaks?

Beehive insulated, with insulated inner cover, and strapped to survive winter

Will The Bees Survive Winter?

Honeybees don’t hibernate, they cluster. Their metabolism does slow down, but the don’t ‘go to sleep’. The bees move around the hive, in a balled mass, with the queen in the middle. They move through the hive eating the honey stores. The bees on the outside of the cluster move their wings to generate heat, to keep the cluster warm. And the bees rotate, kinda like a volleyball team, so the bees on the outside of the cluster slowly move to the center to warm up, and the inner bees move outward to be the cluster-warmers.

In a perfect world, this works fine, then spring comes, and the queen lays eggs, and off we go on another season. But in the northern states, this is not the case. Whatever issues a hive had over the season has a big impact on whether the bees survive winter.

Best Beekeeping Books That I Still Use

I’ve got a bunch of vids and how to posts on the topic of winter beekeeping, but I’ll answer the question above right quick.

Temps in the 20 and 30s are pretty good for winter, I think. The problems get really bad when its near zero. But you can still lose your bees in a 30 degree winter.

Mite Load. If there are mites in the hive in the fall, that number will explode in winter. As the mite load rises, the bee population declines due to winter die off. The mites will eventually kill off the rest of the hive. Currently I think the best mite treatment is with oxalic acid, here’s the video.

BTW, just because you don’t see mites doesn’t meant you don’t have any. You more than likely do.

Condensation. The outside of the hive is cold, the inside is warm. Condensation collects on the top of the hive, and drips back down onto the bees. Cold bees are OK in winter, cold wet bees are dead bees in winter. The combined use of dry sugar feeding and a insulated inner cover eliminates condensation.

Starvation. Either leave a lot of honey on the hive or feed your bees starting in late summer. Sugar syrup is cheap winter bee survival insurance.

Bees eating dry sugar in late winter.

Emergency Winter Feeding. I think the dry sugar feed is great, but you can also put fondant, sugar cakes, or candy boards on top of your hive. The dry sugar method, aka moutain top feeding, is literally a piece of newspaper on top of the hive with 4 pounds of dry sugar poured on it.

Northern Queen. Southern queen that come in bee packages have a lower survival rate than Northern Queens. If you have bought a package, you can replace the queen in summer (requeening video here), and increase your chances of winter survival.

OK, that is my 500 word thought on the subject, what are your thoughts? I always learn from you all in the comments. Thx!

January 5, 2018
Why The Different Color Honey Cappings?

I wanted to pull some of the honey off our bigger hive. Early in the year I had stacked two honey supers on that hive, hoping to catch an early nectar flow, which I managed to do despite a swarm. But as I was going through the honey supers, which are super heavy, btw, I saw frames with different color honey cappings.

Not sure what this meant. Were the darker wax cappings honey that was older? Had the honey had more time to cure, or lose moisture and darken? There wasn’t as much dark honey in the frames, there was a lot more honey with lighter, almost white cappings.

This is a dilemma I’m happy to have, after last year’s drought left us with almost no nectar flow, and no honey to harvest. Any honey the bees managed to make we left in the hives for them to use over winter. This year’s spring rains helped kick the nectar flow in early.

Because of that early nectar flow, I wanted to pull some honey frames off the hive, extract them, and get the frames back on the hive before the nectar flow stops this summer. So I pulled off all the dark capped honey frames I found in the honey supers. Most of the lighter capped frames stayed on the hive.

If you all are wondering why I only use medium frames throughout the hive, once you pull a honey super off a hive, you will understand immediately. Honey is heavy. A medium super of honey weighs about 40 pounds. If your hive is on a hive stand, and you have two honey supers plus 3 brood supers on a hive, you are pulling 40 pounds off a hive above your head.

I put metal handles on all my honey supers, and its ideal to have a helper with this any most all jobs with beekeeping. Learn from me.

OK, back to the question of cappings. Why white and darker cappings in the same hive? First an explanation about cappings from the best beekeeping blog, Honey Bee Suite. Rusty says:

Depending on their genetics, bees either place the capping wax directly on the surface of the honey, or they may leave a little air pocket between the surface of the honey and the wax. These two methods make no difference in the flavor, color, or quality of the honey, but they make the finished combs look dramatically different.

The honeycomb with the air pockets is said to have dry cappings. The comb appears white or very light tan. Honeycomb with wet cappings is not actually wet, but it looks like it might be. The appearance is darker and may have a variegated pattern due to scattered mini air pockets, which have a lighter color.

While some honey bees produce both types of capping, some consistently build one kind or the other. Italian honey bees (Apis mellifera ligustica) are known for producing white, dry caps. At the other end of the spectrum, Caucasian bees (Apis caucasica) produced wet caps almost exclusively.

White cappings are called “dry cappings”, darker cappings are called “wet cappings” FYI.

But why the different color honey cappings in the same hive? I put honey supers on this hive in spring, and then the hive swarmed. Not wanting to lose the honey season while the hive raised a new queen, I re-queened the hive. The new queen was a mix breed from Long Island. The white cappings of the newer honey suggests she is mainly Italian. The original queen was Carnolian.

June 15, 2017
Quick Swarm Traps To Capture Swarms

Make these quick swarm traps when you have some spare beekeeping parts on the shelf. The parts are just sitting there, so we might as well use them, right? Here’s how I build a swarm box using that famous GardenFork mantra: Use What You Got.

I had some frames from a dead hive, plus some frames of honeycomb that had been damaged by wax moths. While not in the best of shape, these are perfect for a quick swarm trap. Not sure if you can see it in the photo above, but most of my frames use plastic foundation. One benefit of this is you can scrape out damaged comb and not ruin the whole frame. The center frame had some wax moth damage, which I removed.

Above is the difference between frames made with wired wax foundation and plastic foundation. Use either one for your hives, its a personal preference, lots of strong opinions about this of course… I like the plastic foundation because its easy to clean up, it lasts longer and the bees take to it easily.

I am using a medium frame super, that is the wooden box that the frames sit in. If you have spare frames, but not a spare super, you can make a box out of scrap wood or cardboard or even plastic sign material. Make sure it has an entrance and ventilation. Again, Use What You Got.

Bees that are swarming and looking for new home LOVE the smell of an old beehive, and are attracted right to it, hopefully. So save those chunks of old burr comb and honeycomb, and stick some in each of your quick swarm traps. I put the comb on the bottom board, under the frames. It doesn’t have to be attached, it can just sit there.

Because I like to buy bee supplies, and this was pretty cheap, I picked up this swarm attractant. Buy online here. The envelope has 2 small plastic vials of mystery fluid. I’m pretty sure its lemongrass extract and perhaps spearmint. It says not to open the envelope, but of course I did anyway, to discover the vials. Basically, the heat of the day warms up the plastic vials, which probably leak a bit of essential oil vapor. Place the vial on top of the hive frames in the box.

I’m using an old bottom board for the base of the swarm trap, but you want to reduce the entrance. The swarm may not have the population to defend a large entrance, so close it down with whatever you have. Duct tape works very well, FYI.

The screen in the bottom board helps to spread the aroma of the old burr comb, the honeycomb in the frames, and the attractant.

I made a cover for this out of scrap plywood and some 1×2 lumber. I screwed the top into the super holding the frames, and screwed the super into the bottom board. This way you can hang the rig in a tree or on a fence and when its full of bees, you can bring it down without it call coming apart. I usually attach a 1×4 piece of wood as a hanger, and wire this into a tree or fence.

Swarm traps seem to do best when located in a partial shade area about 100′ from bee yard. But you can put them anywhere to test them. I put one in my Brooklyn backyard every year, because I see bees on our flowers, but have no idea of any beekeepers nearby. I have yet to catch a swarm in the yard, but I try.

You can make quick swarm traps out of all sorts of stuff, even political signs, learn more here.

I have caught some swarms, and its a lot of fun, watch here:

May 9, 2017
Winter Beehive Inspection – GF Video
A winter beehive inspection can be either a good thing or a bad thing, here’s a video I made about how I check a beehive in winter.

Winter Beehive Inspection Rules
1. Only do this if its warm enough. If its above 40F, its ok, but warmer is better.
2. Open and close the hive real fast. You don’t want to chill the hive.
3. Don’t pull any frames, peer down into the hive as best you can.
In winter, you can’t do much for your bees. What you can do is make sure they have enough food. Of course, you have prepared the hive in the fall, by going through this Winter Beekeeping Prep list. Now about all you can do is open it up quick, and add some sugar if they need it.

I use the dry sugar winter feed method, and it has worked well for me. So in the winter, I can just pop the cover and top off the layer of dry sugar if need be. If the bees are not looking good or if there are very few bees in the hive, there isn’t much you can do in winter. The hive will probably die, as a result, be more prepared going into fall next year.

A winter beehive inspection can tell you if you need to order a package or nuc of bees. If the bees are alive, it can also give you a sense of accomplishment. Getting honeybees to survive winter is no small challenge, especially in norther climates.

You can see in these photos how the bees have chewed through the newspaper and are now eating the dry sugar. Through the winter, the sugar has hardened as it absorbed moisture from the hive, this is a good thing.

So again, work fast, keep the hive open only as long as needed. Its not summer, its cold out, and the hive has to be kept warm.
February 15, 2017
Bucket Bee Feeder Video – Beekeeping 101
Here’s a homemade bucket bee feeder I made to feed the honeybees sugar syrup. Watch the video and then step through the photos below.

I like the bucket bee feeder because you can feed the bees sugar syrup in the early spring and fall without having to open up the beehive. Our other sugar feeder videos all involve opening up the hive to feed the bees. This doesn’t.

The downside is if the weather is wet or cold or both, the bees wont fly and can’t get to this feeder. So I will use a combination of hive sugar feeders and this outdoor feeder.

Couple of tips when making the bucket bee feeder:
- Be sure to buy a food grade bucket with a gasket ring that seals the lid.
- Don’t drill holes where the handles meet the bucket.
- Fewer holes might be better.
- The bucket must be level when inverted.
You may have to shop around to find a bucket with the support ring that we will use as the feeder. This ring is for a person to be able to handle the bucket better with their hands, but when the bucket is inverted, the spaces under the ring make for great sugar cups.

5/64″ holes

I found that a 5/64″ drill bit worked well for me. Several people have suggested, after watching the video, that fewer holes would keep the sugar syrup from overflowing as much when its first turned over. With fewer holes, one would drill or cut through the walls between the spaces to allow the syrup to fill the ring. I’ll have to experiment with this. Let me know if you do as well.

If you accidentally drill in to the ring cavity where there handle attaches to the bucket, like I did, you can glue the hole shut. Silicon caulk works, or some plastic glue.

When you first flip over the bucket, some syrup will pour out. It will slowly stop. If it doesn’t stop, the drilled holes are too big, or the gasket isn’t sealing.Be sure the bucket is level, or the syrup will flow out.

As suggested by a viewer, test this out with plain water first. I used a 1:1 sugar syrup solution with some essential oil mix added with the feeder. Here is a homemade essential oil mix. I now buy a commercial essential oil mix from a beekeeping supplier, its just easier for the small amount I use every year.
April 12, 2016
Varroa Mite Treatment For Bees – Beekeeping 101 – GF Video

Here is the oxalic acid varroa mite treatment I use on our honeybees. I’ve used a few mite treatments in the past, tried the varroa resistant queens, one year I did the hands off method, and the oxalic acid mite treatment is the best thing I’ve used so far. This is based on my use, and other beekeepers I know. Some mite treatments are pretty awful in the hive, oxalic acid strikes a good balance.

Oxalic acid occurs naturally. It is present in spinach and rhubarb, and is found in small amounts in honey. My treatment method is based on a post by Rusty on my fav beekeeping blog, Honey Bee Suite.

One of the great things about this method is that it is super easy. Some people will vaporize oxalic acid in their hives, but this requires some gear, and I don’t recommend it for the hobbyist beekeeper. Our treatment process uses a 60 ml syringe. You can buy these at agricultural supply stores, or online here.

This sugar – acid mix is also great for spraying bee packages before putting then in a hive. It knocks down the mite load quite a bit. All the packages I hive are sprayed with it before dropping into a hive. When treating a regular hive, it is best to apply the mite treatment in late fall, when there is little brood in the hive. The acid will not kill any mites that are in capped cells.

Oxalic Acid is easiest to buy as wood bleach

The oxalic acid varroa mite treatment recipe:

Oxalic acid is also known as wood bleach. It is used by wood finishers. You may be able to find it in a hardware store. I couldn’t find it, so I bought it online, order oxalic acid here. You can buy the syringe here.

Put 600 ml of hot water in a quart Pyrex container, or similar glass jar.

Add 35 grams of the oxalic acid crystals and stir to dissolve in the hot water

Add 600 grams of granulated sugar.

Store in a glass jar – I use a canning jar.

Take the cover off the hive, do not break apart the hive. You apply the acid through the top super.

Measure 50 ml into the syringe, and dribble 5 ml into the spaces between each frame of a 10 frame hive. Some people will use more of the acid in the frame space areas that have more bees in them.

Rusty suggest practicing the dribble with water before doing this, and I agree. It takes a little work to get it right. Rusty references the Scientific Beekeeping site in her post for the exact oxalic acid varroa mite treatment recipe.

December 3, 2015
Beehive Winter Wrap – Beekeeping 101 – GF Video

After trying several kinds, this beehive winter wrap works best for me. Its easy to put on, and I can re-use it every year. It makes winterizing beehives easier, and the honeybees make it through winter.

Beehive Winter Wrap How To:

Insulating the beehive is the first part of winter prep. The second and third parts of winterizing the beehive is to use an insulated inner cover and add a backup source of food, we use the dry sugar method. Before any winterizing, treat the bees for varroa mites.

I use the 2″ thick polystyrene you can buy at the lumber store. Its usually used for insulating walls and basements. Its not the cheapest stuff, but it will last a long time, just don’t beat it up. One 24″ x 96″ piece will wrap a hive with some leftover.

I cut it with a retractable box knife with the blade pushed all the way out. Be very careful when cutting. Use a piece of metal or wood as a straight edge, and make series of cuts down through the polystyrene. You can also use a hand saw with a straight edge. Best to cut this on a work table or somewhere you don’t mind getting knife marks. Once you make several cuts down through the material, you can snap it off, kinda like cutting drywall.

Keep in mind the pieces do not have to be perfect.

Do Not Block The Lower Entrance

Upper Entrance Kept Clear!

The front piece of insulation will be shorter than the back piece. You have to make sure not to cover the lower or upper entrances with the insulation. These both need to stay open through winter. I use a ratchet strap to hold the hive wrap against the beehive, you could also use 2 bungee cords, one near the top, one near the bottom.

December 3, 2015
Easy Insulated Inner Cover – Beekeeping 101 – GF Video
Here’s how to put together an insulated inner cover for your beehive without having to buy a new cover or build one. I learned this method from Phillipe at MudSongs.org , he has some great info on his beekeeping site, very down to earth.

An insulated inner cover reduces or prevents condensation in the beehive in winter.

Why does this matter? Condensation is water that collects on the top of the hive. It forms on the side of the inner cover that faces the bees. When enough water collects, it will drip back down onto the bees. Not a good thing.

Wet bees are dead bees.

Especially in winter.

How does this cover help? Condensation happens when warm air meets a cold object. In the beehive in winter, the bee cluster is warm, and there is some humidity in the air. When the warm air from the cluster rises and hits the cold inner cover, the water vapor condenses and drops back onto the bees. Not good.

The insulation that sits on top of the inner cover here keeps the cover from getting real cold, thus reducing or eliminating condensation. Since I have been using the insulated inner cover, I have not seen signs of condensation in the hive. If you find mold in your hives, you have condensation, FYI.

My variation on the insulated cover is to put a shim between the upper super and the inner cover. I then put sugar on top of the frames, using the dry sugar, aka mountain camp, method. This sugar provides a backup food source, and absorbs moisture in the hive.

Be sure the slot of the inner cover is not covered, one should always provide an upper entrance to the hive, plus it allows for air flow. Yes even in cold weather, I believe a hive needs some air flow, so provide an upper entrance. Remember to invert the inner cover.

You should also insulate the sides of the hive.

Here is how to stack the parts of the top of the beehive, top to bottom:
- Outer cover sits on top of insulation, and usually covers it.
- Insulation – I use 2″ thick polystyrene.
- Inner cover, turned upside down, flat side faces upward.
- Spacer shim, with dry sugar on top of newspaper.
- Top brood super
I built some DIY insulated inner covers that are more involved than this stack method, and they work well for me. If you are handy, have at them.
December 3, 2015
Mountain Camp Method for Winter Feeding – Beekeeping 101 Video
The mountain camp method of feeding your bees sugar during winter is the best way I’ve found so far to provide bees with an emergency food source. For whatever reason, honeybees may run through their winter food stores, and need additional food to get through the tough winter months. The mountain camp method provides this back up food source in a brilliantly simple way. Watch our intro video and follow up video, then read through the rest of this beekeeping 101 post.

Mountain Camp Method How To

Before I started to use this technique, every fall I would make sugar patties for the top of the hives as an emergency feed. They work fine, but making sugar cakes is a pain. This does the same thing.

The mountain camp method of feeding honeybees emergency sugar is pretty simple. And that’s why I love it. Here’s how to do it:
- Lay a sheet of newspaper over the top of the hive, cutting it down so there is space around the inside perimeter of the hive box.
- Pour granulated sugar on top of the newspaper.
- Spray the pile of sugar with water so it crusts over.
- Place a spacer shim and/or an insulated inner cover over the pile of sugar.
- Tilt and strap your hives down for winter.
We built these DIY insulated inner covers that have a spacer built in to allow for sugar feeding, be it sugar syrup in zipper bags or pollen patties. If you don’t use a cover with that allows for this, you can build a simple spacer out of 1″x3″ common pine. I haven’t seen a spacer that’s deep enough for sale anywhere. They are easy to make.

Insulated Inner Cover with built-in spacer for sugar feeding

Simple spacer allows for dry and wet sugar feeding. Easy to build.

This pile of sugar on top of the hive provides a second benefit, it absorbs moisture in the hive during winter, and prevents condensation from dripping back down on to the bees. Wet bees in winter is a very bad thing.

Questions I have gotten about this method:

Can I feed them this dry sugar instead of sugar syrup in the fall? No. You still need to feed the bees sugar syrup in the fall. Watch our Sugar Syrup Feed videos.

My bees have plenty of honey and I fed them sugar syrup during the fall, why do I need to do this? I do the same thing in the fall, but the dry sugar is an emergency winter feed. Sometimes bees run out of their own stores, or sometimes they can’t get to them. Below is a photo of bees taking up sugar I provided them. If I hadn’t provided the bees with this emergency sugar, they would be dead now.

Why is it called mountain camp? From what I understand, a person who goes by that name posted this method online a while back and the name stuck.

Check out more of our beekeeping 101 and winter prep videos and posts:

Winter Bee Inspection Video

Build an Insulated Inner Cover

Let us know your comments below, thanks!
September 17, 2015
Beekeeping 101- Hive Inspection – GF Video

A Hive Inspection is just that, you are checking out the beehive to see how its doing. Part of our Beekeeping 101 Video series, today we are doing a hive inspection of a nuc we installed this spring. This bee nuc had a late start, as did all our bees, because spring came late.

Note in the beekeeping video we did not smoke the honeybees. I don’t smoke bees unless I know I am giong to take apart the hive or pull honey off. When you smoke the hive, it can cause stress in the hive, and the bees start to eat their food stores, so it sets them back a few days whenever you do it.

If you are going to just do a quick eyeball check, I see no need for the smoker. For this hive inspection, I wanted to confirm the presence of the queen and make sure the hive looked robust and smelled good. You can tell a lot from just how the bees are behaving.

Some of this is gut feeling, but listen to your bees while doing the hive inspection. If there is a low incessant buzz, the beehive may be queenless, which is a bad thing.

How do you know if the hive is queenless? The big red flag is no uncapped brood. In other words, no open cells with very small eggs or larvae in the bottom of the cell. You might also see a lot of drone egg cells, which means you have a drone laying worker. Which is bad. This means one or more of the female workers has started to lay eggs. The eggs will be sterile, so they become drones, hence the presence of large drone cells.

Pull out a frame from the center of the top brood super. If you see open brood, that’s a great thing. The queen has been present in the past few days, and she is probably still around. You want your frame pattern to look roughly like the photo above. It wont be perfect, but something like this. Not every cell in the brood area will be capped, there will be some empty ones.

I think its best to learn how to raise bees by having two hives. You can compare the two, and get an idea of what is ‘normal’. There are several good books on beekeeping we recommend here.

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July 22, 2015
Requeening A Hive In Fall, a visual beekeeping how to

This year has been the year I’ve had to requeen 4 hives. Not sure why, but wanted to show one way how to requeen a beehive. This beehive was doing fine, I pulled some honey off the hive, and then checking it 3 weeks later there is barely any covered brood and no freshly laid eggs anywhere in the hive. You can see here in the first picture of the beehive, this frame is from the lower super, where there is usually brood, there aren’t any eggs on this frame. Luckily, I have a few other robust hives, and was able to get a queen from a nearby beekeeper.

Queens will slow down their egg laying in the fall, so you have to make sure the hive really is queenless, check most or all of the frames for brood.

Empty brood frames, not a good sign

Requeening this hive, I had to keep in mind its getting late in the year, and these bees will need a good population to get through the winter. I pulled two frames full of brood from a nearby healthy hive, knocked off most of the bees from those frames back into their hive, and got ready to open the queenless hive.

From the queenless hive, I took off the upper supers and then pulled two empty brood frames from the bottom super. I then put in the queenless hive the two frames of capped brood from the healthy donor hive, and then wedged in between those two frames the new queen in a queen cage.

Gently tap this frame over the donor hive to knock most of the bees off and back into their hive. Make sure the queen is not on these donor frames.

Capped brood from the donor colony

The capped brood will hatch soon, and will help boost the population of the hive while the queen gets acclimated and starts laying. I think this hive will make it through the winter, we still have a few months to get it back in shape.

I feed all our hives a 2:1 sugar syrup solution with an essential oil mix added in ( get the honeybee essential oil recipe here ), with this hive i may start early on the feeding.

queenless hive ready to accept brood frames and queen cage

Capped Brood Frames and Queen Cage inserted into queenless beehive.

Here are some beekeeping books I recommend:

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What has your experience been with requeening? Let us know below:

September 14, 2012
How to Requeen a beehive : GardenFork.TV : Beginning Beekeeping

Learn how to requeen a beehive in this beginning beekeeping video. Requeening the hive is not rocket science, but you do need to know how a few things when you do this. This Beekeeping video will show you how to replace the queen in your beehive, or at least how we do it. As with many things in life, this is how we do it, others may do it differently.

You replace the queen in a beehive when you want to improve the hive’s characteristics or when the original queen of the beehive has died for some reason. You also requeen a beehive to keep it from swarming.

We are going to try requeening our hives in late August to prevent swarming the following spring. I’m told that queens replaced in the fall will not swarm in springtime, so we’ll see. Of course we’ll make a video about that.

June 13, 2010