Winter Hive Checks
After months of actively caring for your bees, it's finally time to take a deep breath and wait for spring. If you are like me, waiting is the hardest part! Every cold, rainy night or cold front, I wonder what's going on with my bees, when I can check on them, and whether it’s too cold to take a look. Here are some answers to common winter inspection questions:
1. How often should I inspect?
I recommend some form of inspection twice per month, November through January. For November, you should be adding a pollen patty or Stan’s Soft Sugar Bricks at each inspection and doing any last-minute syrup feeding. One inspection in December and January can simply be to lift up the hive and peek under the lid to ensure proper food stores; the other inspection can be to quickly look inside the hive and replenish the Stan’s Soft Sugar Brick if needed.
2. When should I inspect?
Bees do a decent job of keeping their hive warm and recovering after the hive has been opened. If you are simply checking food stores and not breaking the boxes apart or lifting frames, inspections can be done anytime. If you are lifting frames or breaking the boxes apart, I recommend around noon on a sunny day. This will give the bees plenty of time to form their cluster before it gets cold again at night.
As far as temperatures are concerned, I’ve inspected plenty of hives around 35–40°F if it’s sunny, and the inspection only takes a few minutes. If you want to pull all the frames out one at a time and do a longer inspection that lasts several minutes, it needs to be flying weather—50s and sunny. But to just break the boxes apart to see the cluster side and pull a frame or two out, it can be quite cold without damaging the hive.
3. What should I be looking for?
Typically, winter inspections are to gauge syrup or honey stores. If your hive has less than 30 lbs. (three deep frames of honey) in the second box, you can attempt to feed syrup. Don’t be surprised if it takes the bees several days to drink syrup in the winter, as the liquid is often too cold. If this is a problem, feeding Stan’s Soft Sugar Bricks is a good way to provide carbs along with the protein from the pollen they contain.
Check out how to tell how much honey is stored here!
During the winter, that’s about all you can do. Outside the hive, make sure the lids are on securely, water isn’t pooling on the bottom board, and your wind blocks are in place. If you do have a bright, sunny day and want to pull a few frames out, you should see the queen beginning to lay eggs by early to mid-January. A pollen patty or two starting in early January will help jumpstart that process.
By: Blake Shook