Winter Is Coming... Are Your Bees Ready? Tips To Help New Beekeepers Prepare

Winter is coming, are your bees ready? Learn a few basic tips that will help new beekeepers prepare bee hives for the cold winter months. Bee hive winter preparation is very important and if the right steps are not followed the chances of the bees overwintering is very low.

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[petermurphy]

Hi JC, thanks for sharing your tips for winter prep for your bees.

[dinobernardi]

Hello Jason. Little help. We are third year beekeepers in Michigan. We lost all last year and year before. Have educated ourselves with mite management and now struggling a little with winter prep for moisture control etc. Anyhow here's what I have at the moment. Made and added a
- 2 1/2 inch shim to top of hive
- 3/8 hole in shim side for upper entrance.
- 5/8 holes with screen one per other 3 sides for venting.
- Added sugar cakes to top of frames
- Added medium supper on top of 2 1/2 inch shim with wood shavings and empty toilet paper roll in each corner for air movement.
- Added lid on top of medium with 2" insulation board for buffer to the outside cold hitting top of lid and condensing.
What you will notice is that I have kept my inner cover sure if that's a good choice it's bothering me seems as tho i could be losing a lot of heat from the cluster.
Could you please review my setup and offer me a little guidance. Thank you for your help and instructional videos. Thanks again Dino

[jeffharper]

1st year Newbee in Wayne County Ohio. Thanks for the tips.

[stufarnham]

of year is colony strength. The consideration at this time of year is not how many colonies you go into winter with, it is how many you come out with in spring. DO you have colonies that are weak and have struggled to build up numbers? If so you should consider combining a couple of weaker colonies into a single stronger one. Look at your colonies. If you find two that look like they need combining, go back over your notes to evaluate queen performance over the year. Consider queen age as well, and decide which queen is the better to get a colony through winter and come out strong in the spring. Remove the other queen, dispatch her, and do a newspaper combine. It will likely feel like you are losing a hive, but in fact you are increasing your chances of having one live colony in spring instead of two dead outs. Bees are livestock, just like cows or chickens. Emotion has no place in your husbandry decisions. Make the hard decisions when you face them and you will do better over the long run. Stu

[micksbeesstephens]

I'm a big fan of sugar boards as an insurance policy, especially on winter nucs. Thanks for the weekly updates.

[robertdelay]

Nice video our asters here in New Mexico are annuals. We have a lot of them but my bees aren't using them much. Pollen is still coming in no frost yet but several thirty degree mornings. October 4th we should have had a freeze. Love your vids.

[peterlightbody]

Going into a hot summer here, feel for you going into a cold winter there with all that snow take care Peter Australia

[younginsong]

1. reduce the size of entrance
2. take out empty frame
3. feed 2 :1 sugar syrup

[anabelaramos]

Planting plants for the bees is a good idea, I don't know if those plants are going to grow, if so I wouldn't plant them so next to the bee hives. It's a problem when we are opening those boxes. Better to have a clean space around them.
I have that next to 2 of my hives and each time I go there I just feel like cuting them, I hate those plants when I am working the bees, believe me!!!

[johnburgoon]

Thank you, sir, I noticed I had some upper boxes with empty comb and a few frames of foundation not even drawn out. Tidied that up after seeing your video. Thanks! I have been planting oregano and thyme and transplanting mountain mint to the ends of my fence rows, etc. Never thought of asters, that's a great idea. Cheers from southern Indiana. I hope the bee winter over well this year.

[hubertpounall]

Great video Jason I'm I'm living in a tropical situation as a Beekeeper for over 40 years its always useful to reduce your entrances,
One thing I can tell whether you're in a tropical situation or not, Bee Behavior are basically the same.

[bobbybighoof]

great video as always :) good to see ladybug, and awesome on the plant transplants consider box gardens at the ends where you put your transplants in. I see you got a good bit of clay in your soil. Still good and fertile though so that's good. great stuff man keep up the great work

[MrFHLH]

Always good sound advice, thanks Jason. About to fit my mouse guards as soon as this weather will let me without getting soaked.

[Bulldogges]

Make sure to water the asters. Lots of water for the first week or so to get them established. ❤🐝

[marlenebasiago]

Good video Jason. Where did you purchase your belt with the magnet that holds your hive tool?

[garydungelman]

Don't forget to sunflowers they're the best for the bees

[ClickinChicken]

winter is a long time, going to bee interesting! shared this with my sis.

[JasonEmery]

Hello Jason, I have learned a lot from your videos. I believe you said that, going into Winter, you don't want frames in the top box with non-drawn out foundation. Are you saying it is ok to have a mixture of frames with honey and and other frames with drawn out comb, even if they don't have brood of honey?
For example, I had a couple of August swarms, and got spooked. So I put boxes on top of several hives that probably didn't need them (except for swarm prevention). Should I now remove these boxes, as the bees have not had had enough time to make much progress in drawing out the comb, storing honey, etc. Or would it be better to grab a few frames of drawn out comb/honey from a laying worker hive I let wither to almost nothing?

[karenwaitley]

Earlier this year I also had the bad foot smell, I checked my bees a few days ago and the smell coming from the box is oranges, yea oranges. My property is covered with marigolds and calingia.(pot marigold) . They will be in full bloom till a hard freeze.

[larrytornetta]

I think the asters will do better on the edge of the woods. They also like wetter areas.