I’ve attached to this document the presentation I did at the last meeting. It was one tiny part of the Washington Beekeepers association conference the week-end of October 4th up in Lynnwood, Washington.
For those of you who couldn’t attend I’d like to summarize the most important points which came from a professor at the University of Montana, Dr. Scott Debnam. It was an explanation of how and why bees survive the winter in the wild.
The bee cluster in a tree is surrounded by thick pulp and bark. The R value (resistance to heat loss) is about equal to the number of inches surrounding the bee cavity. Four inches of wood is about equal to R4. Our Langstroth hives have less than an inch of wood, i.e. less than R1.
The tree pulp above and below is usually several feet. The R value is huge. No heat escapes. Bees propolize any openings above their cavity.
The colony stores honey above the brood comb just as it does in our hives.
When bees consume honey they give off water which increases the humidity, and carbon dioxide which acts like an anesthetic to slow down their metabolism and need for food.
Any water which condenses does so below the cluster and therefore the bees do not have water dripping on them. In fact they sometimes propolize below the cluster to capture that water.
So what can we learn from how bees survive the winter? The rest of this is my opinion, not from the conference.
2. Compress your bees into as small a space as possible. One deep, or one deep and one super, or two deeps.
3. Wrap the hive to increase the R value of the box and keep it dry. You can purchase wraps, use foil lined insulation of some kind, etc. I duct tape and/or use bungee cords whatever insulation I am using.
4. Fill the empty super or a deep with lots of insulation. Foil line the inside and outside of the outer cover. The top must have LOTS of insulation and no vents.
5. At some point, perhaps January or February, you would be safest to put a candy board, fondant, or raw sugar above the top brood box and below the insulation box.
The goal is to have no cold space above the brood.
I bought a polystyrene hive at the conference. It has R7 on the sides and R10 above. With this hive, I must leave the white board out all year to allow for enough air to circulate in the hive.
The speaker was talking about how HONEY BEES make it through the winter on their own. Feeding wasn’t part of the discussion. You will want to give your bees several gallons of 2:1 sugar water to fill up all the empty cells in the colony. I put a little honey-b-healthy in mine. Since there’s very little brood, the colony can hold lots and lots of nectar.
It’s especially important when you are feeding sugar water that you have the bottom board out completely or part way so that the humidity in the hive does not kill your bees.
Tilting the hives a little forward is also important. Any condensation will drip down the walls rather than onto the bees.
Lastly, heft your hives from the back regularly. You should be unable or almost unable to lift them with one hand.