As the beekeeping season draws to a close you’d like to think that those people ‘of beekeeping age’ (according to The Guardian*, they are “ripped, rugged, with a confident bearing, and have a certain ease in their skin”), could finally think about putting up their feet for a few weeks. Far from it! It’s true that the work involved in keeping bees is less intensive over the winter months, but it is still important. Bees are living creatures, not toys to be packed away until next year, so they need to be looked after even if you don’t actually see them very often.
After the honey harvest, typically for us in September, we treat our colonies for varroa mites, and carry out our final disease inspections to ensure that our bees are as healthy as possible going into the winter. We assess their food stores, and if we feel they are a little low (happily very rarely), we’ll feed them sugar syrup that they can store. In a typical French hive, a viable colony requires around 18-20kg of food to see it through until the Spring when the foragers can start again to gather nectar and pollen in earnest. So, by checking the frames for capped honey and nectar, and by hefting the hives to feel their weight over the following weeks, we can ascertain whether or not they have enough to live on.
We also assess the size of the colonies and any that are too small and therefore too weak to survive the winter can be merged with stronger, larger colonies. Tempting as it is to try and get several small colonies through to Spring, the reality is that success is often unattainable. Far better to have only a few hives but hives that you know contain strong queens and healthy bees, ready to grow and thrive as the weather warms up.
When checking the frames we will mark those that we think need to be changed early next year as part of the spring-cleaning process. Over time, wax comb becomes darkened with age and usage, and this old comb can contain pathogens which need to be cleared out of the hive. We do this as soon as we can at the start of the next season, so that the new generations of bees will thrive on clean comb.
Given that we insist on keeping some of our bees in hives which are not exactly the shape or size, or in the location that bees would choose themselves, (ie in large boxes close to the ground, instead of small hollows high up in trees!) it is incumbent upon us to protect them as much as we can. This means that we need to provide shelter from any violent winds, insulation in the event of sudden cold snaps, and deterrents to intruders. This last issue is a simple one to resolve – we place ‘reducers’ across the hive entrances. These clever devices effectively cut down the large gap to just a few small archways, plenty big enough for the bees to pass through, but too small for mice and lizards looking for a cosy place to spend the winter. The reduced entrance also helps the bees to guard the hive from any inquisitive and hungry wasps. Hornets can still be a problem up until the beginning of December if it is a mild winter, and so these entrance reducers are even more important to install. It’s worth mentioning that some of our colonies are kept in different kinds of hives, using a more natural beekeeping method, which we aim to migrate further towards in the coming year.
All of the above is done before we can enjoy some of the first ‘R’, the Rest, but then it is time for the second ‘R’, Reflection. Winter is a great time to look back on the beekeeping year just gone and decide what went well or not, and why. Keeping notes of all the hive inspections reminds us of what’s gone on, and helps us to make decisions for the following year. Obviously notes about queen strength, laying abilities, and honey yields are important, but paying attention to the pollen the bees gathered can give us insight as to what flowers we need to plant for future foragers. Then off we trot to buy lots of bulbs for early pollen…forget what was said about ‘Rest’!
*The Guardian quoted in BeeCraft magazine, September 2023 issue
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