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Tag: overwinter bees

  • Winter Beehive Inspection – GF Video

    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.

    Winter Beehive Inspection Video

    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.

    Winter Beehive Inspection VideoYou 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.

    winter-beekeeping-watch-more

    mountain-feeding-sugar-beekeeping-play

  • Sugar Cake Recipe Winter Beekeeping 101 Video

    Sugar Cake Recipe Winter Beekeeping 101 Video

    Here’s a video on how to make sugar cakes to feed your bees in winter. Overwintering your honeybees is  challenge, here is one way I help the bees overwinter, feeding them sugar cakes with this recipe. You can make these at home. I use foil pans you can buy at the grocery store.

    Note: I know use the dry sugar aka Mountain Camp method of providing sugar to honeybees in the winter. Watch our dry sugar Mountain Camp video here.

    winter beek check list watch

    The sugar cake recipe:

    • put 5 pounds of sugar in a large mixing bowl
    • add 7.5 ounces of water
    • add a teaspoon or two of essential oil mix if you choose
    • mix together and then spread out in a 9×13 or similar foil pan
    • allow to dry overnight
    • take off the inner cover of the hive
    • carefully turn the cake upside down onto a thin plastic or wood board
    • slide the sugarcake onto the top of the hive, and either put on either a shim or an insulated inner cover, and then the outer cover.

    Here are some photos of how to make sugar cakes for bees.

    You can add a homemade honeybee essential oil mix to the sugar cake recipe, you can see the essential oil recipe here. Update: I know buy the pre-mixed essential oil mix, its not that expensive and saves time.

    To put these cakes on top of your hive, you must use a spacer – shim, or an insulated inner cover.

    There are many opinions on how to get your bees through the winter, this is one way we make sure our honeybees have enough food to get through the winter. What I like about sugarcakes is that the cakes absorb moisture in the hive, which reduces or prevents condensation in the hive.

    Many beekeeping books say you should open the hives only when it is 45-50F, but I’ve found if you act quickly, you can pop the top of the hive to slide in sugarcakes when the temperature is in the 30s. Obviously you aren’t going to do a hive inspection at 30F, but you have a few seconds to open the inner cover an add sugar above the supers.

    Again, I think the dry sugar method is much better now, check it out here.

    mountain-feeding-sugar-beekeeping-playDo you use sugar in your hives in winter? let us know below:

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