Beekeeping | How To Change Frames Around For Winter

Beekeeping skills like moving frames around for winter can really help your bees have a better chance at surviving winter.

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[crystalsaldana]

I never had a dad so I watch your videos and pretend my dad is teaching me

[johnmenocal]

Thank you for showing the amount of oil in the beetle trap!!!

[frogsurfer]

Good video Dave; I agree that such a weak colony can be combined with another, but I have successfully saves small colonies as well. I agree with your methodology in the video except for one glaring problem (to me). Never go into winter with empty frames, that is death, and there is a big size mismatch here between the size of the colony and the size of the hive. It would be more appropriate to move this colony into a smaller hive, or else remove the empty outer frames and replace with insulating 'dummy boards' which will have the double benefit of reducing the cavity volume as well as adding insulation.
I also like to use the technique of overwintering small colonies over a strong one separated by a double screened inner cover so the colonies share heat.
Another issue that I don't think you addressed (you may have and I missed it) is determining WHY this colony is weak; I would never do a newspaper combine without first addressing the cause of weakness otherwise you could be sickening an otherwise good strong colony by introducing disease.
Cheers from Newfoundland David 😊

[jerrygreen]

I agree with you. I think that hive should have been combined with another.

[microtcpip]

Wow, I am impressed with this video because there are tons of videos out there advising how to do it, but there are never follow-ups, leaving us wondering if that advice was good at all. I do not know about you, but if I am advising something, and after some time, it works, I would rush to show off how excellent my advice was... meaning that I would doubt the usefulness of those videos without following up. Please keep following up on this hive. I am very interested to see how they do.

[BanjoZZZ]

This is my first year beekeeping, and I've run into a lot of problems in the last few weeks just before winter. So I am extremely grateful for more information on what you shared. I tried to go from two boxes down to one with no idea what I'm doing, I got my bees Robbed y other bees and attacked by hornets and I didn't even realize it until I watched your videos recently.

[Beradfam]

This is the instruction I needed. I am a one year beekeeper and my hive is weak. I ordered your feeder so I will put it to use this winter and hopefully my bees will survive the temperature in Northern NJ. Fingers crossed.

[iditarod]

A bit surprised you're feeding 121 instead of 221 this late

[donnaschneider]

What do you think about feeding them a piece of banana. I have read several articles and listen to a couple of podcasts from some studies about feeding bees. A piece of banana seems like it would be worth a try with the failing hive.

[shadialbek]

Hello... If you can make a video of manipulating frames in a long beehive, with a number of frames of 17 or 20... Thank you.

[josephvenezia]

Do you leave beetle traps in all winter?

[donnaschneider]

I live in Florida so we do not have much of a winter. It gets a little cold January February but for the most part we stay about 50 almost every day for our winter and hit some Lowe's about 3-4 weeks out of the year. I have a hive that has built some queen cells and is reclining itself now. Today is November the 12th but our hives here. Can we clean themselves until the end of November as today's temperature is running in the high 80s. If this hive has a queen in a couple of weeks, I am going to try feeding it small pieces of banana. It will be my banana test hive. This high currently only has about three frames of bees. Will keep you updated.

[scotthenderson]

OF topic question; I pulled the rest of the frames /supers I left on from summer. Everything is capped with couple half frames not full or capped. I couldn't spin them out like I planned so I froze them to prevent hive beetles messing them up. Issue is now that there thawed and any missed beetles are dead, the honey is reading 20-21. Should I put them back or turn a fan on and de humidify the room? I only have a way to heat a few frames at a time.

[wolfiemom]

Is it a safe idea to inspect a hive in the rain. Light rain, nottpouring

[b.greene]

How would you address a situation where the brood and most of the hive is all in the upper deep but, the lower deep has still got a lot of pollen and bee bread in the top 25% of the middle frames? I'd love to just remove that entire lower box with all that empty space but I'm afraid I'm removing some valuable resources. Tons of bees on both boxes and I am currently feeding them during a fairly rainy period of October, here in Oregon.

[jaredgodwin]

Winter-Bee-Kind boards without candy are still marked as sold out in both sizes😢.

[Peter-odop]

Not thrilled with jars as they get pressurized and force fluid out.

[johnzeigler]

Hey David! What do you think about removing frames but keeping both deep boxes and using following boards to close them down to a 5 over 5 setup, or 4 over 4, or 6 over 6 (whatever works best for the amount of bees and resources). I’m considering trying this with one hive to over winter. It is similar to doing a two story nuc, but without changing boxes. I know a lot of beekeepers like this type of vertical setup better than putting all ten frames horizontally. Supposedly less likely to have isolation starving.

[TinyTrailFarm]

Dave, I love this. I trapped SHB in a frame but in doing so wrecked a weak colony which I combined with stronger colony. The timing of your exercise is exactly what I’m shadowing, thank you, thank you, thank you! Kevin in WNC.

[michaelfortney]

This answers all my questions. Thanks.