Winter is a tough time for most animals. The weather turns frigid, and access to food and water becomes scarce. You’ve given your bees a lovely little home with diligent care, but the cold season can still be hard on them. Low temperatures and moisture buildup pose real threats to a colony’s survival.
This is why beekeepers prepare their hives before the first frost. This ultimate guide to properly winterizing your bee hives will walk you through the steps you need to get your hives ready to handle the cold. We’ll cover why it’s necessary, what you’ll need, and how to do it correctly.
Why Winterize Your Hives?
A strong, healthy colony can often manage winter on its own. They have their ways of generating heat and have spent the fall stocking up on honey. So, why do we need to intervene? The answer is that winterization provides an extra layer of security. It gives your bees a better chance to not just survive, but to come out strong in the spring.
Winterizing your hives helps to:
- Insulate against the cold: Extreme temperatures can stress the colony. Insulation helps the bees maintain a stable internal temperature without burning through all their honey stores.
- Control moisture: Bees produce moisture through respiration. In a cold hive, this moisture condenses on the inner surfaces and can drip back down onto the cluster, which could chill or kill the bees. Proper ventilation is a core part of winterization. This involves checking existing ventilation and, if inadequate, fixing or creating new vents to maintain optimal airflow and prevent moisture condensation.
- Protect from pests: Winter is when pests like mice seek warm shelter. A beehive is a perfect target because it offers warmth, protection, and a ready supply of food (honey and pollen). Winterization includes steps to block these unwanted guests.
- Provide emergency food: A small or less productive colony might not have enough honey to last until spring. Supplemental food can be a lifeline.
Supplies for Winterizing Bee Hives
Before starting the process of winterizing, gather all the supplies you’ll need. It’s best to have everything ready to go, as this will make the job faster and smoother compared to stopping midway to find what you’re missing. Here are some of the common supplies beekeepers use to winterize their hives.
Insulation Wraps
Hive wraps are like a winter coat for your beehive. They add a layer of insulation to help retain the heat the bee cluster generates. You can find wraps made from various materials, from simple tar paper to more advanced insulated blankets. They fit snugly around the hive body.
Mouse Guards
Mice love to move into a warm, food-filled beehive for the winter. They can cause a lot of damage, destroy combs, and contaminate honey. A mouse guard is a simple metal or wooden strip with holes small enough for bees to pass through but too small for mice. You install it at the hive entrance.
Inner Cover and Ventilation
Your standard inner cover is a good start, but you might need to adjust it for winter. Some beekeepers create an upper entrance by placing a small shim or stick under the inner cover. This provides a ventilation point for moist air to escape. You can also place quilt boxes, shallow boxes filled with wood shavings, above the inner cover to absorb excess moisture.
Winter Feed
Sometimes, a colony just doesn’t have enough honey stored up. A long, cold winter can deplete their food supply faster than you’d expect. Winter patties, which are solid blocks of sugar and pollen supplement, offer a reliable emergency food source. You can place these directly on top of the frames, right above the bee cluster.
How to Winterize Your Beehives
Now that you have your supplies, it’s time to get to work. The process of winterizing your hives includes just a few manageable steps. The best time to do this is in the late fall, after the last honey harvest but before the first hard freeze.
Step 1: Consolidate Your Hives
The first step is to assess the strength of each colony. A weak colony with a small population will have a tough time generating enough heat. It’s often best to combine a weak colony with a stronger one. You can use the newspaper method to merge two hives, which allows the bees to get used to each other’s scent gradually. You should also reduce the hive to the number of boxes the bees actually occupy. A smaller space is easier for them to keep warm.
Step 2: Ensure Adequate Food Stores
Check how much honey your bees have stored. A full-sized hive in a cold climate might need 60 to 90 pounds of honey to survive the winter. Lift the back of the hive to gauge its weight. If it feels light, you’ll need to provide supplemental feed. You can feed them a 2:1 sugar syrup solution in the fall, but stop once temperatures consistently drop below 50°F (10°C). After that, switch to winter patties.
Step 3: Pest and Disease Management
Before you close up the hive for winter, do one last check for varroa mites. These pests are a major cause of winter colony losses. Perform a mite count and treat if necessary. Fall is a critical time for mite treatment because the bee population is declining, which concentrates the mite population.
Step 4: Install Your Mouse Guard
Once your mite treatment is complete, install the mouse guard at the main entrance. This is a quick and simple step that can save your colony from a lot of trouble. You’ll thank yourself in the spring when you find a clean, mouse-free hive.
Step 5: Arrange for Ventilation and Insulation
Your hive will need a way for moist air to escape so it doesn’t condense inside the hive. Create a small upper entrance or use a quilt box. Once you’ve addressed ventilation, you can wrap the hive. Secure the insulation wrap around the hive bodies. Some beekeepers also add a piece of rigid foam insulation under the outer cover.
Step 6: Choose a Sheltered Location
If possible, position your hives in a location that gets morning sun and blocks the harsh winter winds. The morning sun will warm the hive and encourage the bees to take cleansing flights on milder days. A windbreak, like a fence or a row of shrubs, can shield the hive from direct wind exposure, so the bees don’t have to work as hard to keep the hive warm.
Get Your Bees Ready for the Cold
Properly winterizing your beehives is one of the most proactive things you can do as a beekeeper. It gives your colonies an added defense against the brutal cold and allows them to thrive. With the right preparation, you can look forward to seeing your bees emerge, healthy and active, in the spring.
At Dadant & Sons, we sell high-quality bee hives and accessories for beekeepers of all levels. As you get ready for the cold, you might want to check out our winterizing products, which include insulating wraps and winter patties. Let us help you prepare your colony for the quiet season that lies ahead.