I [...]]]> This post is a follow-up to “Rethinking the triple deep hive” that I ran earlier in the week. One reader asked me to expand on the comment, “The triple-deep nests were more-or-less in a column rather than a sphere. Hive inspections showed the brood nests spanning all three boxes in the very center.”

I made that observation last October when I was getting ready for winter. In the double-deep hives, the bees were generally in a sphere in the bottom box. I say “sphere” because the clusters were seven to eight frames wide and as deep as the deep frames–okay, a slightly flattened sphere, although in some cases the nest extended into the upper box for a few inches.

In the triple deeps, however, I found the clusters in the center of the middle box and extending both into the lower boxes and the upper boxes. The clusters in these hives were in what appeared to be a column about five frames wide in the center box, and three to four frames wide in the upper and lower boxes. These were definitely long and narrow nests, as opposed to spherical nests.

The configuration in the triple deeps irritated me at the time. Since I normally overwinter in double deeps, I had planned to take one brood box off each of the triple hives. But when I got in there, I saw no easy way to winnow it down to two without destroying at least part of each nest. So I just left them that way and, of course, they were the ones that survived the winter.

Scott Famous, a beekeeper from Pennsylvania, wrote in with several interesting observations. Scott overwinters in two deeps and a medium. He says,

. . . I have had clusters survive in that amount of space that were no bigger than a softball. . . . I think it’s just an insulation factor . . . because they’re always smack dab in the middle.   I believe that staying in the middle of those boxes keeps them in “dead air” space better than anything smaller, and thereby allows them the least amount of draft and loss of cluster heat. . . . While the bees do benefit from a certain amount of air exchange, keeping it fresh, WITHOUT any drafts is just as important. Bees need “still air” in their boxes, in winter, with very little exchange, and NO DRAFTS.

I firmly believe it’s all about a balancing act of adequate air exchange, with NO fast moving air. . . . The combs/frames provide the perfect baffles against that type of air flow, while still letting the chimney effect of the cluster heat very slowly “pull” from the fresh air at the bottom, and ever-so-gently refresh the available air supply without active loss of cluster heat. . . .

It is very true that full combs of honey and pollen are very dense and have a high heat capacity. A high heat capacity means that their temperature will not fluctuate rapidly along with the outside temperature. So while the outside temps may rise and fall willy-nilly, the temperature of the full combs will remain much more constant.

If, as Scott points out, you can overwinter a softball-size cluster in a large hive, it stands to reason that all the extra honey is acting not only as a food source, but as insulating material.

The part I haven’t reconciled in my own mind is that a higher chimney has a greater draft. So, in theory at least, a taller hive will have more draft then a shorter one. And more air flow through the hive would remove more heat from the cluster. Yet, people consistently say that tall hives overwinter better. There are clearly factors here that I haven’t considered. If you have a theory, please chime in.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

I get a lot of questions about the wisdom of using triples and my usual answer is that the size of the [...]]]> In spite of the HopGuard fiasco of this past winter, some of my hives pulled through. With one exception, the colonies that survived were either in triple-deep Langstroths or a top-bar hive.

I get a lot of questions about the wisdom of using triples and my usual answer is that the size of the hive should be commensurate with the size of the colony. It seems logical that a colony should not be crowded into a small hive lest food shortages occur, nor should the colony be overwhelmed by a large hive that cannot be patrolled and kept warm.

One of the interesting things about losses is that you get to see what works and what doesn’t under adverse conditions. All my hives were treated the same way last fall, but it is obvious now that the large-volume hives did better. I don’t know the exact volume of the top-bar hive, but my rough calculations show it to be larger than a double-deep Langstroth, but smaller than a triple-deep.

So what is the difference? Of the hives that died, each had ample supplies of pollen and honey, and no obvious signs of disease other than deformed wing virus (which is transmitted by mites). But since all the hives were treated at the same time with the same (inadequate) regimen for mites, why did the larger-volume hives survive? The truth is, I don’t know.

I don’t think that the number of bees was much different in the doubles and the triples in the fall, but the bees were more spread out. The triple-deep nests were more-or-less in a column rather than a sphere. Hive inspections showed the brood nests spanning all three boxes in the very center.

Here are some theories:

• A larger brood nest encourages the queen to raise more brood. Even though more brood yields more mites, the vast number of clustering bees is able to overwhelm the phoretic mites.

• Triple deeps allow the bees more room to move straight up, rather than move laterally, for food. This idea, though, does not account for the top-bar bees which have to move laterally in any case.

• A fall nectar flow, especially one occurring after the honey supers have been removed, encourages bees to backfill the brood nest with honey. Sugar syrup fed in the fall does the same thing. As a result, the queen has little room to lay, so she slows egg production earlier than she should. The lack of brood forces the colony into winter with an older population of bees that are not robust enough to raise spring brood. By using three deeps, you give the bees more room for storage while allowing the queen more space to lay eggs in the fall.

• A larger brood nest yields more bees to help keep the colony warm and hygienic. Even though a large colony uses more food, it is available in the three boxes.

• Triple deeps have better ventilation because a taller hive increases the “chimney effect.” Damp air and mold spores go out the top; fresh air comes in the bottom.

Whatever the reasons, advocates of triple-deep hives report fewer winter losses, less need for spring feeding, earlier build-up of spring populations, and fewer swarms. I was never a believer. But based on my own experience this year, I think I will plan for triples in the coming season.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Valentine Bee

The answer is “no.” Tilting a hive forward is important for anyone using a solid [...]]]> Maybe I’m becoming too cynical, but here’s another beekeeping discussion that makes me crazy. It usually begins when someone asks this reasonable question: “If I’m using a screened bottom board, do I still need to tilt the hive forward?”

The answer is “no.” Tilting a hive forward is important for anyone using a solid bottom board because rainwater or snowmelt can accumulate on the alighting board or blow through the entrance and become trapped inside the hive. A driving wind can blow in a substantial amount of precipitation. But a hive tipped forward allows the water to drain back out.

On the other hand, a screened bottom board is—for want of a better word—screened. Water that comes in through the entrance drops out the bottom. Even with the Varroa drawer in place, the water is removed from the bees’ living quarters and eventually slides off the edge of the drawer and out the bottom of the hive.

Fair question. So far, so good. But then, like clockwork, someone offers this truly bazaar bit of advice: “Even with a screened bottom board you need to tilt the hive so moisture condensing on the inner cover will run to the edge and drain instead of dripping on the bees.” You’ve got to be kidding. Are these people serious? Would they treat malaria with a bandage?

If you have so much condensation at the top of your hive that it flows when tipped, what you need is not a system of diversion drains and downspouts. What you need is a solution to the problem.

Even if you could prevent water from dripping on the bees by draining it off the inner cover (which I doubt—some would drip anyway), much of the water is just going to run down the inside of the hive and wet the interior wall. Some of this water will evaporate and, since evaporation is a cooling process, it will further cool the hive. The saturated wood will not dry easily, but it will sprout a nice assortment of mold, mildew, and fungus.

The same holds true if you skip the inner cover and use only a telescoping outer cover. If the cover is in contact with the edges of the hive (which it probably is) the water will drain down the inside, not the outside, of the hive. This is not what you want.

Most of that moisture can be controlled by providing adequate through-ventilation, insulating the cover, and/or providing a moisture quilt to collect water vapor. Although some humans have water cascading down the walls of their living rooms and call it art, the bees will be healthier if you omit the water feature and prevent the moisture from accumulating in the first place. Dry bees are happy bees.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

I prefer a level hive.

Based on hearsay and my own beekeeping experience, I believe [...]]]> Lots of folks want to know if bees consume more food in warm winters or cold winters. I’ve been searching for scientific data on this for quite a while but I haven’t found any. So, for what it’s worth, I hereby offer my opinion.

Based on hearsay and my own beekeeping experience, I believe that bees expend more energy—and so eat more food—in warm winters than in cold ones. As counter-intuitive as that may seem, I’m convinced it’s a common occurrence.

In very cold winters the cluster remains intact for long periods, brood production is extremely low or non-existent, and all other hive activities come to a standstill. The bees vibrate their wing muscles to create heat and the highest temperatures are found in the center of the cluster, but that temperature can be lower than when brood is present.

In warm winters, however, with occasional balmy days and temperatures that rise into the 40-60°F (4.5-15.5°C) range, the bees begin doing other things. They may take cleansing flights, some search for pollen, the undertaker bees carry dead bodies from the hive, house bees clean debris from the nest and sweep cobwebs from the corners. Brood production may increase, and with increased brood production comes the need for consistently higher temperatures in the nest along with constant feeding and tending of the larvae.

All of these activities require energy even though some of them are not very effective. Foraging for pollen, for example, requires lots of energy and it may or may not produce good results. The higher than normal temperatures seem to “trick” the bees into searching for something that may not be there—or may not be found in sufficient quantities to make the trips worthwhile. We’re talking cost/benefit ratios here, and the benefits will depend on local conditions.

And don’t forget, the nights are still cold. The cluster resumes warming itself during the long winter nights, so it is still expending a lot of “keep warm” energy even though the daylight hours are warmish.

In addition to tricking the bees, I think beekeepers, too, get lulled into thinking that warm weather means the bees will have plenty of food. I, for one, have been seduced into believing that winter stores would last longer during a balmy winter. But experience has shown otherwise, and I now check for honey stores earlier in warm winters than in frigid ones.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

The bees were flying from this top-bar hive one day after the photo was taken.

If you lack one of these items, you won’t have a strong hive in spring whether you wrap or not. But if you live in a very cold climate, and you’ve met the four basic [...]]]> Overwintering successfully requires four basic things:

• Plenty of healthy bees
• A strong queen
• Plenty of stored food
• Good ventilation

If you lack one of these items, you won’t have a strong hive in spring whether you wrap or not. But if you live in a very cold climate, and you’ve met the four basic requirements, wrapping can be beneficial.

Think of it like this: if you live in a climate where it would be difficult for a healthy feral colony to overwinter, then wrapping makes sense. If nothing else, it can increase the chance of hive survival and it can give you a boost at spring build-up.

Wrapping properly can raise the temperature in the hive, reduce condensation over the cluster, and reduce drafts cause by winter winds. Done poorly, wrapping can turn the hive into a damp, disease-ridden death trap for the bees.

There are as many ways of wrapping as there are beekeepers, but once you understand the principles, you should be able to wrap with minimum expense and hassle.

Here’s a short list of considerations:

• A dark color absorbs heat from the sun. Tar paper, also called roofing paper or roofing felt, is a black, water resistant, inexpensive wrap that can be stapled or tied around the exterior of the hive. It will provide protection against rain, snow, and wind, while absorbing solar heat as well.

• A piece of Styrofoam under the inner cover will reduce condensation over the cluster. Condensation occurs when warm, moisture-laden air rises from the colony and touches the cold lid or inner cover. Since Styrofoam is a good insulator, water is less likely to condense on its surface.

• In any case, the warm moist air must be continuously removed from the hive because, eventually, it will condense—even on the insulation. It can’t be removed unless it has a place to go, so an upper entrance or ventilation port must be used in conjunction with a lower entrance or open bottom board. In other words, air must be able to circulate through the hive, bottom to top.

• A top entrance works well in winter because, besides allowing air flow, it is less likely to become blocked by snow or clogged with dead bees.

• At least one beekeeper I know uses screened bottom boards surrounded by skirts of tar paper. The screened bottom boards allow for good air flow and the black skirts act like solar collectors, resulting in nice warm air circulating up through the hive. (This beekeeper has assured me that when he sticks his hand up under the skirt he can feel the warmth. Ahem . . . )

The biggest blunders occur when the wrapping is so “weatherproof” that moisture produced on the inside of the hive cannot escape. Once condensation builds up in the hive it can drip down on the bees causing them to chill and die. Moist hives are also breeding grounds for disease. Good ventilation must be a major part of any plan to wrap.

Rusty

HoneyBeeSuite.com

Last year was the first year I attempted to keep nucs over winter and it worked really well for me. Bear in mind, however, it was my [...]]]> After my last post, “How to keep queen bees in reserve,” a number of people asked, “Then what? What do you do with them in the winter?”

Last year was the first year I attempted to keep nucs over winter and it worked really well for me. Bear in mind, however, it was my first year, so I have limited experience. That said, I’ll explain what I did:

• I kept the queens in two-frame nucs from June until August. This wasn’t my plan. I just assumed I would need those queens before August, but it turned out I didn’t.

• When it became obvious they would still be around in the fall, I decided to put them in five-frame nucs so they could expand. So I just put each two-frame nuc in a five-frame box and added three drawn frames to each.

• As soon as I put them in the larger boxes, the colonies began to expand. By early October, each covered about four of the five frames.

• In mid-October, I gave each nuc a frame of honey from my larger hives. I had to juggle things around—sometimes moving bees as well as honey—until all the nucs had a good supply of food.

• After I evened out the food supply, I stacked the nucs in a column with a double-screen board between each. The nuc with the largest population went on the bottom and the smallest population went on the top. This arrangement allows heat from the most populous hives to rise up through the less populous hives, which helps to keep them warm.

• We have fairly mild winter temperatures here, with an average of about 40 degrees F. So I just left the nucs outside under a rain shelter.

• Three times during the winter, it got into the 20-degree range for several days to a week. During those times I put the nucs inside a shed where I keep the temperature in the 40s. I thought the small nucs might not survive sub-freezing temperatures for extended periods because the winter clusters were so small.

• In December I used the smallest nuc to requeen one of my large hives. I just combined them using the newspaper method and didn’t open the hive again till spring, except to add feed. That hive, I’m happy to report, is doing great.

• The other two nucs made it till spring. I fed all my hives—including the nucs—sugar patties with pollen starting in February. In early April, I combined the two nucs because one was looking a bit weak. In early May, I deleted the remaining queen and merged the nucs into a regular hive.

Study your winter temperatures carefully if you plan to do this, because it doesn’t take much freezing weather to kill a colony that is so small. On the other hand, it is great to have queens available in the winter season. If you don’t have your own, there is no other place to get them until spring.

Rusty

During cold weather, the [...]]]> It was a winter of bee starvation. In the past few weeks I’ve heard countless tales of beekeepers losing all or nearly all their hives to starvation. Many of these hives had not a drop of honey left. Others had full frames of honey remaining, but the bees starved anyway.

During cold weather, the bees cannot leave the cluster in order to find food. Oftentimes, honey stored just beyond the edge of the cluster is never touched. As the bees move upward, they consume the food the cluster encounters. The resulting pattern resembles a vertical tunnel through the stored food.

Warm periods during the winter allow the bees to move around and find more of the food. Sometimes the cluster may move toward one side of the box and eat the honey there. But after it becomes cold again, they are even further from the stores remaining on the other side of the box–which is why you sometimes see the dead cluster on one side or in one corner of the brood box.

A similar type of movement occurs in top-bar hives. Although the bees don’t move up, they may gradually move left or right. But if they eat their way to one end of the hive, they can’t turn around and traverse the empty combs to get to the other end. So they starve.

The cluster of bees won’t leave brood unattended, so even though there is very little brood in the winter months, it anchors the cluster to one spot. It seems like the bees would move freely inside their box, but instead, they are always attached to the nursery.

Placing feed–especially hard candy–just above the cluster is very effective because that is where the bees are most likely to find it. In addition, heat from the cluster keeps that area warmer than the surrounds, so bees can move onto the candy without freezing.

A lack of honey may be due to over-harvesting, but it may also be due to paltry nectar flows or particularly long winters. Whatever the cause, feeding sugar is a long, time-consuming, and expensive ordeal–but it may be the only way to keep your bees alive.

The photo below shows what typical starved bees look like. The bees–still in the shape of a cluster–all died head-down in a cell with their little butts sticking up in the air. Each is trying to survive by licking every last molecule of sugar from the bottom of a cell, but when that gives out, they die from lack of fuel or freezing to death. It is a very sad sight to see. The photo was kindly provided by Jared Watkins.

Rusty

A frame of bees that starved. Photo courtesy of Jared Watkins.

Now I see that my [...]]]> Since I published “How I overwintered ten out of ten” several people have asked me what I did with the slatted racks during the winter. Since I always leave slatted racks in place, I didn’t think of them as an overwintering strategy, so I left them off my list.

Now I see that my way of thinking about slatted racks–as a permanent part of the hive–was confusing to people. So I have now added another bullet to my list and it looks like this:

• The slatted racks remained in place in the Langstroth hives all winter long.

Comment: I consider slatted racks basic equipment in Langstroth-style hives, so I never remove them in any season. In summer they provide a place to hang out during hot muggy days, and the queen tends to lay eggs further down on the brood frames–apparently because this area is no longer near the “front door.”

In a traditional winter hive with the Varroa drawer in place, the slatted rack adds an insulating layer of air between the brood nest and the Varroa drawer. This will not exist in the same way with the Varroa drawers pulled out. However, during cold snaps–or other times when the Varroa drawers are in place–the slatted racks again provide a “dead air” space that helps to keep the bees a few degrees warmer.

Thank you to those who mentioned the omission. I appreciate your input.

Rusty

To be more specific, I went [...]]]> I’ve been thinking about this post for about a month, but I didn’t dare write it until spring was here for sure. But on Thursday, when a fur-coated bumble bee alighted on the patio and a bee fly examined my shoe lace, I knew I could call it.

To be more specific, I went into September with nine Langstroths, one top-bar, and three nucs. Today, with April just a breath away, I still have nine Langstroths, one top-bar, and two nucs. Not only are my colonies still alive, they are bursting at the seams. Bees are pouring through the entrances and climbing up the walls. I am elated.

Those of you who have read my blog for a while know that “overwintering” is my main honey bee interest. I usually manage to overwinter 60-80 percent of my hives. But this year I decided to “pull out all the stops.” I tried everything I could think of to help the bees make it through the winter.

The result, of course, is no controlled experiment or repeatable design. In fact, there are so many variables it would strain the organizational capacity of Excel. So all I can do is tell you what I did and why.

Before reviewing my steps, I’ll give you a quick overview of my local climate. In one of my very first posts on this blog I wrote that “all the challenges are local” and I still believe that. Beekeeping is not performed in a vacuum, and your local climate plays an immense role in the life of your bees.

I live in western Washington in the middle of the Puget trough. The word “trough” reminds me of water, and that pretty much sums it up. It rains nearly constantly in the nine-month period from September through June. It doesn’t add up to a lot—annual averages are about 51 inches—but it rains a little bit all the time. The three-month period of July, August, and September is hot and dry, dry, dry. No rain. Zilch. Nada. Everything is crisp.

Although I live at 47°N latitude, I am in USDA hardiness zone 8, which means it doesn’t get very cold in the winter. It dips down in the teens and twenties, but doesn’t stay very long. We get snow in the lowlands, but only two or three times per year. The average winter day is 40°F and raining.

So here are the steps I took to overwinter my bees, beginning in June 2010.

• By June 30, all honey supers were off my hives.

Comment: I live adjacent to a 91,650-acre state forest and the only farm crop in the immediate area is hay. So my bees forage almost exclusively on spring-flowering trees and roadside weeds. By the time the hot dry months arrive, there is almost no forage to be had. Whatever honey I get accumulates from April until June.

• During June I collected enough swarm cells to begin four nucs.

Comment: I wanted to carry one or two extra queens into the winter in case one of my colonies went queenless. So I started four nucs with swarm cells. Three of these produced viable queens. By fall I had three healthy nucs “just in case” something went wrong with one of my colonies.

• In August I treated for mites.

Comment: First off, I never use any conventional pesticides in my hives. However, if mites are a problem I use one of the all-natural products made from thymol (an essential oil of thyme) or formic acid (an organic acid.) Unlike conventional pesticides, these are difficult and time-consuming to use.

This year I used ApiLife Var (a thymol product) which requires multiple applications over the course of three weeks. Honey supers cannot be in place. But it is the timing of treatments that is important for overwintering.

The thymol and formic acid treatments should be used when little brood is present—so later is better. But you want to treat summer bees for mites, not winter bees*—so earlier is better. You have to make a judgment call. In this case, I set aside August for mite assault.

*In case I lost you here, summer bees live an average of 4-6 weeks. Winter bees can live many months—all the way into the following spring. If you treat for mites after the winter bees are born, it is too late to protect them from viruses carried by mites. In other words, a late mite treatment will still kill the mites, but only after the viruses have been transmitted to the winter bees. This way, you have gained very little. You need to kill mites in the summer bees so the hive is relatively free of viruses when the winter bees are born.

• In September, I checked the hives for honey stores. Any hives that appeared to be short on honey were given some extra frames reserved from the harvest in June, or given sugar syrup mixed with Honey-B-Healthy, or both.

• Entrances were reduced on all hives to protect them from robbing and yellow jackets.

• All Varroa drawers were removed from the screened bottoms to provide maximum ventilation.

• The slatted racks remained in place in the Langstroth hives all winter long.

Comment: I consider slatted racks basic equipment in Langstroth-style hives, so I never remove them in any season. In summer they provide a place to hang out during hot muggy days, and the queen tends to lay eggs further down on the brood frames–apparently because this area is no longer near the “front door.”

In a traditional winter hive with the Varroa drawer in place, the slatted rack adds an insulating layer of air between the brood nest and the Varroa drawer. This will not exist in the same way with the Varroa drawers pulled out. However, during cold snaps (see “weather forecasts” below) –or other times when the Varroa drawers are in place–the slatted racks again provide a “dead air” space that helps to keep the bees a few degrees warmer.

• Each hive was topped with a quilt box outfitted with four ventilation holes and filled with wood chips.

Comment: Of all the changes I made, this one had the most visible result. In prior years I always had condensation dripping down on the bees from the inner cover. This year none of that moisture reached the bees. They were dry and happy all winter long.

Originally I had anticipated having to change the wood chips every couple of weeks. As it turned out I never changed the wood chips. The ventilation holes seemed to play a big part in preventing the chips from getting soggy. About one-inch of the two-inches of wood chips got wet in each hive.

In my opinion, the combination of more ventilation and less moisture accumulation were the two most-important changes I made to the hives.

• As always, I checked my hives every day or two. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular except for fallen trees or bear damage. Usually I just walked by each hive and flicked the dead bees off the landing board.

• It was on one of these routine checks that luck played a big part in this year’s success. On December 15, just as I was about to flick a dead bee off of hive #2, I realized it was the queen. Darn! I knocked on the hive and it was loud and robust. I examined the queen: she looked freshly dead. So I put one of my nucs in a deep brood box and, using a slit piece of newspaper, combined it with hive #2.

Comment: I still haven’t opened this hive except to add feed. But when I get near it I can hear it roar like a caged lion. Luck definitely played a role here, but pre-planning gave me the queen I needed to keep the colony alive.

• I paid attention to the weather forecasts all winter long. Three times the temperatures dropped into the twenties for an extended period (more than a day or two). In each of these three cases, I inserted the Varroa drawers under nine of the hives and put both the nucs and the top-bar hive in the garden shed.

Comment: My husband convinced me the hives would stay a lot warmer with the bottom drawers in, so in very cold weather I gave them a little help. This compromises ventilation, however, so as soon as the temperatures got back into the 30s, I removed the drawers again.

The nucs were small, so I put them in the shed which is about ten degrees warmer than the outside. The rest of the time they were outside, stacked with double-screen boards between each.

I coddled the top-bar hive because it was a July swarm that moved in by itself, and it couldn’t possibly have had a lot of stores. So, when the nucs went inside, the top-bar hive went in as well. But it, too, came out as soon as the temperature climbed above freezing.

• Right around the end of December, I added a feeder rim to each hive. I placed it just above the top brood box, but underneath the quilt box. I added sugar patties to each hive during January and February.

• In mid-February I began adding pollen substitute to the sugar patties. I continued feeding pollen-enriched patties until now.

Now that it is spring and my hives are boiling over with bees, I’m already worried about swarming. Wouldn’t you know it? If you succeed at one thing, you’ve got to worry about something else.

Rusty