Do You Know How TO Keep Condensation Off Your Bee In Winter 

hi, joe, Good video as always. Here in the inland Northwest our winters are highly variable. I do four things. 1. Tilt my hives forward (actually mine are tilted all year, i don't see anr reason to drop them down). 2. I use a sheet of reflective bubble wrap, either inside my top cover or as an inner cover. This also stays on all year as it helps with summer heat as well. 3. I put quilt boxes on my hives. I take a hive box, staple muslin or wineow screen across the bottom, and fill it with shavings like you would use for animal bedding. This sits right below the inner cover. 4. I used to make candy boards, and have a bunch of 3 inch shims with half inch hardware cloth across the bottoms. I line these withe nespaper, waxed paper, or parchment paper and add dry sugar, mountain camp style. These go right above the top box and below the quilt box. This winter i plan to follow your advice and add some pollen sub for protein. Note that i am very small scale. Thevquilt boxes and feeder frames might be prohibitive on a larger scale Stu

Good video Joe. I agree with your statement that the winter food must be right on top of the frames so the bees can access it. I use Kent's mixture for my feed but otherwise do exactly as you do. It is also critical to allow the condensation to drain. Good advice.

Great tips! I do it a similar way, only I attach 1/2" wire cloth on the bottom of my feeding shim. Then I add newspaper and sugar on top of that. If I need to get to the bees, it is easy to do so, since I only need to lift the shim and the pile of sugar (or what is left of it) comes out, too, without breaking up and falling down into the box.

I haven't kept bee's for quite some time now but I am thinking about starting a couple of boxes. I found this very interesting...

Joe May, thank you. Wanted to let you know that I'm a new beekeeper and i've found your advice and Don Kuchenmeister's advice to be the best. In fact, I only listen to you two guys. Thanks again man, I'd have like 2 failing hives instead of 8 good hives this year if not for some of your advice. This is my first winter, we will make it tho.

Great info Joe. I lost a hive to condensation last week it's not really and issue here in the desert mountain of UT but got me this time

Joe. I used your 2" insulation board with the 1/2 hardware cloth sugar baskets, upper opening shim set up last year and it worked great.

Thank you so much. It was 20f and snowed again today. Glad I was ready

First year bee keeper here: thank you so much for taking the time to share your wealth of information. Second snow coming in the few days. I am always worried about my girls getting wet and cold. thanks again for the tips and tricks to help the ladies.

That was great information Joe, It will save a lot of people having heart aches. Thank you again for sharing the practical stuff.

As a new beekeeper, and after researching, I decided on this method. I applied 8-12 pounds per 10 frame box yesterday. After seeing your video I know I made the right choice. Great video and perfect timing. Thanks , joe. By the way...... I think I’m skinnier. Lol

I use sugar the same way. When I discovered the sugar absorbs moisture in the hive it just seemed to make sense to use sugar. Not sure why people make fondant or candy board. I never put pollen sub in my sugar though, but probably will try it this winter.

Thanks Joe, good tip.

I guess one of the funniest things that find about bee keeping and all the things that we do to try to limit moisture in a hive, is that on mornings during the winter when its warm enough to break cluster and fly, one of the first things that my field bees head to is a source of water to take back to the hive. I've seen mine work dew or melted frost off of the top of my truck, barn, or wherever water can form for as long as 2-3 hours some mornings. Even more puzzling is that mine tend to quit fetching water from my frog pond that they hit all summer, and rather choose these small droplets of dew during the winter months.

Your videos are always so timely. I was going to put sugar and pollen sub in a rapid feeder but since I'm in Connecticut and after viewing this video I don't think I'll be doing that. I have screened trays that I used last year so maybe I'll just use them again. I also have two 8 frame hives that I'll use your newspaper method on.

Thanks!

Thanks Joe for another great video.

All good advice I think. Thanks for sharing.

Wow thank you Joe

Very nice tips, i also leave a small rock of salt on bottom board, should they need it and offer water on days above 40 ( just during the day ) in an entrance feeder/ In Nebraska, there aren't very many nice days, so it is easy to do.

Thank you sir

Dry sugar sure beats the sticky fondant that we use up in the north.

Thanks for your videos Joe. Any tips for ventilating a hot production hive in the summer flow? . Many thanks

Joe, will there be brood in the brood box at this time of year as we are getting them ready for winter? As always, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us new beekeepers.

thank you, great tips. what is your opinion on open bottoms with hardware cloth? I have both types, closed and open. and the open bottom boxes have next to no condensation.

If on days where it warms up enough, if its warm enough to open a top in early spring, would you change the newspaper if the newspaper is wet? (if you had a newspaper sugar shim going.) I was surprised that the newspaper seemed pretty wet in there. The sugar did absorb a lot of that. But there was still some moisture.

seeing one beehive attacked by children with the top knocked off in Minnesota still alive after winter with the top off I would think I had failed as a beekeeper. My bees die with the top on if I don't ventilate. probably worse to seal them up and then be full of honey with the bees still dead in cluster with the top sealed.

Joe do you think just laying a flat sheet of 1/2" cloth and paper on top then sugar & pollen on frames would still let you pickup sugar if you needed to go in hive on a warm day they should be easy to store and make. Thanks Old Dan t

Have you ever had the bees carry out the dry sugar and dump on ground? Also when do you put your sugar on hive?

first-year beekeeping had not had very good luck with the bees are fine just the season we had lot of rain and a lot of big mean storms here was funny 12 miles away they do not have the storm 25 hives had to be rescued the field flooded only way was with a horse to get then make a cover for the haves and put the boxes in them and taking them to higher ground long night that was the bees all made the move 4 of the bee yards with my yard was hit with grapefruit-size hailstones twice that night I was cleaning up form the weeks before storms I had here the washed out the roads here for 2 months I could not get to the hives to see if they make it they did not fair very well 100 hives were wrote off they bees were still there at each hive but the hive on the ground and broking have used up the spare boxes already the beekeeper has been helping me I did ask him if I could get spare boxes for him and told him way and shown him pictures of them yes he said he will help me out have 125 hives now we moved them back home and back were they were found and night I close the doors the would not freeze if it gets cold the door is open in the daytime they still are able to get inside after the door is closed too do leave the fly for the food they do take a lot of food have more them the125 hives bee here will keep they warm this year plans on removing more bee for the walls and ceilins I do not work in the cold wwill feed all year too after the harvest start building my hive boxes too all the cutting and painting are done in a different building will build the boxes in the bee building the bees do fly around amazing the know what box is for think most of the bees were swarms for an other bee keeper

Do you open feed this time of year still, or only hive top feed? Thanks

Can I put silica gel packets in a beehive

so, should this spacer with 4lb of sugar be between the nuc and top box that has the winter stores? I run all 5 frame nucs double stacked

Instead of tilting your boxes 11/2 why don't you use a quilt box to absorb the moisture.

Do you still use the wire baskets to put your sugar in?

Will bees move up to honey on cool days?

How wide is the spacer?