Handling the cold?

[Gregory Marton]

Hi folks,

I'm a pretty new hobby beekeeper, just one hive in my backyard, and I haven't yet successfully overwintered a colony, having lost two (or perhaps three at this point). 

So I wonder how everyone dealt with the extraordinary cold this past weekend, and if you have a sense of how well it worked? 

If you didn't do anything special, I'm curious how (and when!) you prepped the hives in the fall to be confident that they'll survive such weather?

I hope this question is appropriate to this list, and that everyone stayed safe and well in the storm.
By the way, if anyone has the bandwidth to offer mentorship off list, I have a zillion other questions.

Thank you all!

Gregory A. Marton (he/him)
Cell: 617-858-0775

[Phillip Thomas]

Greg,

Where do you live?  If you are close enough, I would be happy to stop by and inspect your hive(s) with you on a warm day….

BELMONT BEE COMPANY
Phillip C. Thomas
Head Beekeeper
Belmont, MA 02478
201.213.9788 (M)
617.932.1064 (O)

May Your Hive Be Strong and Full of Honey...

🐝 🐝🐝 🐝🐝 🐝🐝 🐝

Ck out our website:  www.BelmontBeeCompany.com

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[Alex Bostian]

Greg,

Cold will almost never kill a healthy colony, we’ve had an overall very mild winter so two days of cold is actually a blessing. When did you treat your bees for varroa? Mites are the #1 threat to honeybees, they’ll kill a colony in 2 months if not managed properly. Mite will continue to feed and kill honeybees in the winter, it’s like a buffet.

Personally, I treat in March and Sep and a summer one if they need it. I also feed 2:1 syrup with honey bee healthy in late fall when there is no nectar. Blessings for your girls, may they survive into spring 

V/r

Alex

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[Laurie Arnone]

Hi Gregory,

I’m a hobby beekeeper too and I’ve never managed  to keep a colony thru a winter. I’ve had swarming problems and weak colonies but I keep trying.

Just a note for encouragement!

Laurie

On Mon, Feb 6, 2023 at 8:46 AM Gregory Marton <gre...@acm.org> wrote:

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[Sadie]

We insulate pretty well, our first overwinter we bought 2 "bee cozys" - expensive and very effective, both hives came through last winter with resources to spare.

On recommendation of an experienced friend, we also used a shallow super above the upper box, filled with wood shavings, we put a baffle below the shavings to keep them from falling through the inner cover hole, while still giving  lots of room for damp air to exit. We also kick up the telescoping  cover By 1/2" with a wood shim to ensure ventilation, I've seen others do that also. By spring last year the wood shavings had absorbed enough moisture that the bottom 2" was soaked. If we had insulated the sides only (meaning less condensation on the sides, more on the top), then it seems likely condensation would have formed on the inner cover, dripped on the colony and been a cooling hazard.

I believe condensation within the hive is an important water source for the colony in winter, in any case, our approach seemed to work well last year.

As we add more hives, we're going to use less expensive insulation, we like "reflectix", and we'll think to reserve the better (& more expensive) insulation for any hives that are less than optimally strong going into winter. We'd intended to go into this winter with 3 hives, and that was reduced to 2 when we lost a queen in October (we think she simply stopped laying at the end of her second summer). So far this winter, both hives are looking strong, we added fondant patties to the one that seems a little light on stores the warm Sunday before the anticipated cold snap, and looked in on them again yesterday, happy to find both hives looking strong.

Cutting a long story a little shorter, honeybees are very strong against cold and can survive much harsher winters than our area tend to throw, provided they have adequate stores to get through to spring. Some hives are still looking strong in say early March and can starve out in an April cold-snap.

Sadie

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[Barry James]

Hi Greg,

I’m in somewhat the same boat. I had a hive, last year, make it through the winter. Then only to have it collapse in March. Most of my hives haven’t made it. I have wrapped them and added moisture boxes (only recently) I keep two hives going each year. Harvested only once early on and it was about 40 lbs on wonderful honey. I love the bees and strive to take good care of them. I read and listen. But find myself in the same spot as you.

Sincerely,

Jim

On Feb 6, 2023, at 8:46 AM, Gregory Marton <gre...@acm.org> wrote:

[Gregory Marton]

Thank you all for the kind replies, especially those who offered mentorship!

What motivated my question: I read that the temperature difference between the core and the edge of a winter cluster is about 30°C[1] (lovely graph there) and only about 20°C for the bulk of the cluster. The outside temperature reached -24°C. In the early part of the cold snap, I measured the difference between inside and outside temperatures at 5°. So at the coldest point, the bulk of the cluster would be around freezing, somewhat below bees' minimum survival temperature of around 5°C[2]. To my inexperienced eye that was scary, but I guess there is greater resilience in practice than those numbers suggest? Or did I misunderstand or misuse the numbers?

For my own hive, I decided to put a small electric heater [3] under their floor, with a thermostat set to stop heating when the inside temperature got up to zero (freezing). I was concerned about the temperature gradient causing excess condensation. It was effective: at the height of the cold snap the ambient temperature in the hive was still around -10 — -15°C with the heating at full but that seems like enough. That would put the bulk of the bees at 5-10°. For reference this is a single ten-frame deep, with about R10–R15 insulation on the outside, about 2" space between entrance and brood box, fondant on top of the frames then their top cover and piles of sugar in an otherwise empty box on top.

My bees were flying happily today since mid-morning! I briefly inspected them, not actually pulling any frames, just checking on the setup. There was significant condensation in the top box, pretty well absorbed by the sugar, and the brood box was dry. They had plenty of fondant remaining, but I added some. Because of the warm temperatures expected (and because they were flying so much!) I set their reducer to the medium opening (it had been at its smallest). I also reduced the extra insulation to about R3.

Thank you to everyone who mentioned varroa! I didn't treat for varroa in my first year, and that likely drove that loss. Last year my bees absconded in the late fall, likely due to a leaky feeder on top. I would move out too if I my house leaked like that. It was very wet and sticky with fall feed inside when I did the post-mortem. This season I started their last FormicPro treatment on Nov 3, just ahead of it getting too cold to treat. So far so good!

Thank you, everyone!

[1] https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/206/2/353/13914/Endothermic-heat-production-in-honeybee-winter
[2] https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/weather/2021/01/25/what-happens-to-honeybees-in-the-winter

[3] https://www.cvs.com/shop/premium-sunbeam-king-size-heating-pad-with-xpressheat-blue-6hs-lcd-prodid-863736