Keeping Busy

“It must be a doddle being a beekeeper in winter, there’s nothing to do!” such is the kind of remark we often hear, but, au contraire, the winter months give us a chance to catch up on lots of jobs. We also still have to care for our bees to ensure that they survive the ‘downtime’ and emerge in the spring as healthily as possible. Just because we don’t see them as often as we do between March and October, that doesn’t mean we can forget about them.

It’s important to ensure that our hives are sound, secure and waterproof, and we have to check for dampness under roofs and on crownboards after any prolonged period of bad weather. If there are any stretches of particularly windy weather then we often place bricks or large stones on the hive roofs to weigh them down, and we know of beekeepers who have hives in exposed positions where strapping them to the stands is a common requirement.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the overnight temperatures too, and if they drop significantly for any length of time then we’ll be installing insulation. This is in the form of a foil or foam lining in the hive roof, and/or a layer of straw or wood shavings above the crownboard to help retain warmth. Helping the bees to keep warm means that they won’t have to expend more energy than necessary and will therefore help to reduce the use of their stores 

Having enough to eat can be an issue for the bees; if the winter is fairly mild but wet they will be active inside the hive but unable to venture outside. This means they will be consuming more than usual of the food they have stored and so we may need to add some fondant above the frames to give them a boost. How can we tell if they have enough? We heft the hives on a regular basis; at the start of winter they should have around 20kg of honey and obviously this will reduce as the weeks go by. If the hive feels particularly light then we provide extra food. Traditionally, on Boxing Day we will give the bees a small amount of fondant as a Christmas gift, and of course we’ll toast them with a glass of bubbly!

We also check the security of the hives; entrance reducers are used to prevent mice from getting in and we also protect the hives from woodpeckers by wrapping chicken wire around the brood boxes.

The quieter winter months give us an opportunity to clean all our equipment, especially the smokers which, after a busy summer season, are coated inside with black tar. Looking inside a smoker is all the incentive anyone needs to give up smoking cigarettes! Sorting through frames of comb is important too; we render any wax to use in our candle-making workshops, and then store the combs in secure crates to protect them from mice and wax moths. We review our notes and decide on our plans for the coming year, and plan our equipment purchases. On fine days we’ll be planting early-flowering bulbs for bees and other pollinating insects as, even though it feels a long way off, spring will be here before we know it!