WINTER IS COMING
A timely section on a Beekeeper's cycle in the Pacific Northwest
by Kathleen Clerc

WAYS TO FEED DURING WINTER
Hopefully your bees created enough honey to withstand winter without your help. However, it is really important to provide them some sort of assistance, regardless, in case they eat through their stores before you reach spring. If you had the same luck that a lot of us did in '23 - there wasn't much resource to go around. I personally, fed my hives (S Tacoma) and the club's hives (Puyallup), 2:1 sugar syrup through Fall. I was really focused on trying to get the hives the food that they needed. Without that help, our club wouldn't have hives to talk about right now. Puyallup (at least near WSU), did not have enough resources for the amount of hives in the area. There was a lot of competition by neighboring garden stores, farms, as well as commercial and hobbyist keepers.

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It's very wet outside, and those of us in the Pacific Northwest, know that moisture is a challenge. Remember - wet bees are dead bees. Once the rain started to return, I pulled the 2:1 gravity feeding buckets that I use, and switched to Fondant [RECIPE] for my hives at home, and then for the club we are using the Dry Mountain Camp Method and Fondant. I thought I'd try both, for educational purposes. The Dry Mountain Camp Method has additional benefits for hives because it absorbs excess moisture. 

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Andrea Villarreal from Kalamazoo Bee Club did a good write up on the different types of winter feeding. 

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Fondant - This is fairly easy to do. Here’s a great how-to.  You can make fondant easily at home and harden it in any size mold or container you want. This is the method my husband and I usually use, assuming the bees have a normal amount of honey in the fall. We make fondant “cakes” (I harden them in a silicone muffin pan) and then in those first few weeks of spring when the snow has melted, but the dandelions aren’t up yet, we throw a few in each hive. We generally make ours out of one or two five pound bags of sugar and then make more as needed (depends how many hives you are feeding, of course).

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Photo credit: https://meyerbees.com/product/fondant-cube/

Candyboard - This is similar to fondant, but a better option if you need to feed long-term (like all winter, ahem). Here’s a nice tutorial. You basically make a giant fondant board and place it at the top of the hive, so the bees can eat all winter. Making one of these requires about 12-16 lbs of sugar. Beverlybees.com did an excellent job of explaining how to make and install a candyboard. [RECIPE] 

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Photo Credit - https://www.beverlybees.com/sugar-candy-board-assessment-feeding-bees-in-winter/

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Dry Mountain Camp Method - The Mountain Camp Method, simply put, is feeding with dry sugar. It differs from the methods listed above because you use no water or heat to prepare the sugar.

The name came from a beekeeping message board on BeeSource.com. A user, named Mountain Camp, introduced it. It plays on the idea that when you are camping, you often have to rely on simplified methods of doing things and so he offered this simplified feeding method. 

It’s pretty simple. In fact, so simple that when my husband and I finished our first hive I said, “There’s no way this will work. It’s too easy!”

What we did was take the hive cover off and placed a rim feeder that my husband built. It was maybe two-three inches deep. You could probably use an empty box, but we didn’t want to run the risk that the bees would build comb in there. Not to mention, in the winter we want as little air space as possible to keep the hive warm. You can buy rim feeders, but we built ours out of scrap wood.

We then put down a layer of newspaper, just one or two sheets thick. Lay this right on the tops of the frames. It doesn’t need to fit edge-to-edge, in fact a piece that lays in the middle and leaves about an inch around the edges works great.  Most importantly, you don’t want any of the newspaper to hang outside of the hive. If this happens, the paper will get wet and the moisture will move right down the paper into your sugar and into your hive.

Then, we poured in sugar, direct from the bag. You’ll just pour as much sugar over the newspaper as you can fit without spilling into the hive.

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Photo Credit - https://kalamazoobeeclub.com/2015/01/mountain-camp-winter-feeding-method-quick-easy/

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The bees keep the interior of the hive quite warm during the winter months and this heat and condensation works to kind of melt the newspaper as well as turn the exposed sugar into candy. When you make a fondant cake or a candyboard, you are basically adding water and heat to solidify the sugar. When you use this method of feeding, you are using the heat and moisture from the hive to do the work for you. Here’s what it looks like after the bees have started eating

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Photo Credit - https://kalamazoobeeclub.com/2015/01/mountain-camp-winter-feeding-method-quick-easy/

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Oxalic Acid Vaporization

By: Vincent Penoso, Chinquapin Honey

Oxalic Acid Vaporization (OAV) is an ideal Fall/Winter treatment for honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies infested with the Varroa destructor (VD) mite. Varroa destructor decimates apiaries and threatens the food supply worldwide. OAV is most effective in a broodless colony when phoretic mites otherwise shelter in the capped cells of developing worker bees (Van der Steen & Vejsnæs, 2021). Beekeepers employ different homespun regimens to resolve a VD infestation and treat their colonies a few times for a few weeks and hope for the best. OAV is proven to kill mites with minimal impact to a colony’s bee population, but many beekeepers have no systematic application schedule or definitive treatment endpoint.

My technique consists of counting dead mites that drop onto a sticky board 48 hours after an oxalic acid vaporization treatment and recording the results in Excel. Line graphs from the data show the number of dead mites over time. The graphs show how long beekeepers should continue to treat and monitor until the curve(s) approach zero – the treatment endpoint.

The timing for the Fall/Winter treatment is determined by seasonal temperatures, amount of brood remaining in each hive and the perceived urgency to treat based on a bell-weather alcohol wash in September after the last Summer mite treatment, such as Apivar. Each bee colony has a unique character which adds another variable in the hive’s population dynamics and varroal footprint. There is a risk-reward trade off with the timing of the Fall/Winter treatment versus the increasing viral load as you are waiting for the ideal broodless state.

The efficacy of treatment is dependent on the presence of sealed brood. Bee brood is the reservoir for varroa and when there is brood present in the hive, the mite drop remains elevated and treatments are prolonged. Brood levels taper off in Northern Virginia by mid-November. The amount of brood in different regions in the world varies from year to year based on colony dynamics and temperatures affected by climate change. Our mid-December is as broodless as one can expect and is typically when the queen stops laying eggs. It is a certainty that a portion of the mite population can escape treatment because they are protected from OAV in the sealed brood cells. The unknown amount of sealed brood not affected during treatment reduces the overall effectiveness of the OAV by just a small percentage (Toufailia & Ratnieks, 2018).

The Fall/Winter OAV treatment catches mites in the open before they can shelter in brood cells. Once those brood cells are capped with varroa inside, they parasitize the larval hosts through all remaining stages of brood development and affect the health of emergent bees. When oxalic acid was first approved in 2015, the seven day, three-week treatment interval was based on the life cycle of the drone because the varroa mite prefers drone brood, but drones are not present in the Fall. [READ MORE]

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7 precautions to take while handling Oxalic Acid 

 

MAKE A PLAN FOR OVER-WINTERING 
- I'm keeping this part up from last month, as it is still relevant at this time.
Smarter, not harder - I feel that Portland, OR based, Beeandbloom, did a great job in their article.

Remove unnecessary space
Overwintering your bees in the smallest space possible by pulling off empty boxes (or top bars) will prevent heat diffusion, keeping the bees from expending unnecessary energy warming their cluster. This will also limit the space available to mice and other small critters looking for a warm place to crash.
 

Make sure the honey is in the right spot
We don’t recommend interfering with comb arrangement often, because the bees usually organize their brood nest and food stores exactly the way they need them. That said, sometimes things go sideways and might need some rearranging. In Langstroth and Warré hives, honey frames should be on either side and on top of the cluster. In a TBH, the honey bars should be to one side of the cluster. The idea is that the cluster should be able to move together in one direction to eat through the stores. You don’t want half of the cluster moving in one direction and the other half moving in the other!
 

Remove your queen excluders
If excluders are left in the hive, you run the risk of the queen being left behind as the cluster moves up in the honey stores. This will kill your queen (and your colony).

Combine weak colonies. If you wind up with two colonies that are too small to overwinter, consider combining them. Overwintering one hive is better than losing both! You can also combine a weaker colony with a strong one, but be sure that the colony isn’t weak due to mite overload or disease - you’d just be weakening your strong colony. Also, be sure that the stronger colony has enough food stores to take on the extra bodies - you don’t want to bolster a weak colony at the expense of a strong one. 

Pest Prevention

Entrance reducers and mouse guards should go on in the latter half of summer - right when populations are beginning to decline and honey stores are growing. Smaller entrances will keep out yellow jackets and thieving neighbors in the fall, and mice looking for a warm place to live in the winter. If your colony is weak, it’s good to close up the entrance as much as possible to give them the least amount of space to defend. It’s important to remember to check in on your hive entrances in the winter; dead bees may need to be cleared out periodically to allow bees to exit for cleansing flights when weather permits.
 

Wet Bees are Dead Bees 

The need for extra insulation will vary by location. Portland [Washington] winters are more mild than Minnesota winters, but much colder than in San Diego. It’s a good idea to consult with beekeepers in your area to see what works best, but we will cover some general techniques.

Make sure your hive is water tight. Examine the roof and box sides, plugging up any cracks or holes that might let moisture or excessive cold air into the hive. If you’re using screened bottom boards, be sure to close them up or swap them out for solid boards.
 

Insulation Quilt Boxes are a good idea for any climate
The idea is pretty simple: you place a shallow box with a breathable bottom (i.e. canvas, burlap) filled with dry, organic material on top of the colony. These are standard on Warré hives, but I’ve seen them modified for Langstroth and Top Bar Hives, as well. These insulation boxes will keep heat in the hive and draw excess moisture out, both very important for winter months. [How to build a quilt box]

Think twice before wrapping your hives in beecozy or foam insulation, because it can be dangerous if done incorrectly. Wrapping often causes a build-up of moisture in the hive, which can freeze and kill the colony. A soggy hive environment is also at higher risk for mold. Instead, consider constructing a wooden “hive cozy” with dead space between the outer shell and the boxes. This would provide an added layer of insulation while maintaining breathability. Roofing tiles placed on top of the hive is an easy addition that can help soak up and retain heat on sunny days. 
 

Provide a windbreak.
If your hives are in a particularly windy location, a wind buffer will go a long way for temperature regulation and preventing the hives from being knocked over. Stacked hay bales make an excellent temporary wall. 
 

Move them inside a 3-sided structure
Beekeepers in harsh climates will sometimes move their hives into a shed or garage for the winter. If you go this route, make sure to move them after foraging is done for the season, so that foragers don’t get stuck at their original location. Be sure that they get moved out into the open with an open entrance so they can do cleansing flights on the warmest days. Placing the hives in three-sided structures (like a horse run-in) can provide extra shelter without the need to move them back and forth. 

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HOW TO SAFELY STORE EMPTY SUPERS & FRAMES IN WINTER

I learned over the past couple of winters, how important it is to store frames and boxes, properly. Mice, wax moths, and other pests want everything your hive equipment has to offer. It took me only 2 seconds, after shielding my eyes and heart as Mark Mietzer stomped on mice this Spring when we cleared out the club apiary - that it wasn't those pests fault. It was the fault of the keepers. There is much to be said on this topic. Greg Willging has shared with us multiple times that he stores his frames with Paramoth, to stop wax moths from destroying all of the comb that his bees worked to hard to build.  I personally have decided to use the "stack and seal" method this year in my Apiary and in the club's. Here are 4 methods for your consideration. 

• Air Tight - Doesn't take much space, can be indoor or outdoor, has a high rate of success, but is a bit expensive

• Open Air - Takes a DIY-minded person to do, can cost a little bit to start up, but will last for years to come

• Criss Cross Stacking - This is the least expensive method out there. Many beekeepers have had success with it, but is not guaranteed

• Stacked and Sealed - Uses a chemical, however, has been proven to be a successful method over the decades. Very inexpensive to do.

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