In this video I talk about my methods for overwintering bees in cold climates, like Michigan. Overwintering article: bkbees.com/index.php/2017/09/1... Become a Patron for Exclusive Content And Input On Future B&K Bees Content: / bkbees
Good advice Brett. Thanks for caring about what you do and thanks for sharing with those who are coming up behind us as the future beekeepers. Also, I'm thinking 1/4 hardware cloth min. for mouse guards as you said 1/8, while holding up 1/2, which is what I use.
This was a good video. I raise bees in the high elevation parts of the white mountains in Eastern AZ. Here we get about 4 to 6 months of really good warm pleasent weather and about 2 months of cold and 4 months of freazing harsh snowy weather. I have built two greenhouses so far, both 17ft x 40ft, and plan to build more as summer gets closer. My bees have done really well in the greenhouses I built and are actually growing so rapidly I have to split 2 to 3 times every year.
On the moisture board ,we made 3 boxes. 4 pieces of pine 4"X1" it's basically a smaller height version of a super. The bottom of the box is covered with fine wire mesh ( hardware cloth). Use. Screws to fix the frame on each corner and staple the wire mesh onto the bottom. Then cover the inside bottom with a few sheets of white paper and then fill with wood shavings. This goes just below the inner cover or shim and inner cover. The moisture hits the inner cover and just falls into the moisture box. With the hive protected and with adequate feed, you can take off the roof and if there's moisture in the box the colony is alive. That's what we did last year and it worked out fine.
That is a great idea. I applaud you and others that go to that length to take care of moisture, I'm sure it works great. The reason I have never done anything like that is the number of hives we have and the fact that we're always growing. Each dollar spent for us is better spent on equipment for more hives rather than additional equipment for the hives we have. Thanks for watching, Shaun.
Dr. Tom Seely on the podcast Beekeeping today says properly insulating make our hive boxes more like the habitat of a wild hive. With the addition of greater mobility within the hive the dewpoint is also below the brood nest allowing them to access water which he feels is also necessary for winter survival. However I'm in SC where bees can fly almost all winter long so just throwing that out there.
Hello From CT. Had a warm day and found all 4 of my hives dead with plenty of food. The one thing I didn't do this year was a wind break using hay bails. I am not giving up and I ordered 4 packages. At least I have drawn comb for the new bees.
WOW. I've listened to tons of bee videos, and you are the only one of them that mentioned anything about the bee body differences in winter and summer, and how the mites could affect that. Thanks. I wonder if you could talk about or bring up how to know how much money (mispelled honey*) to take at the end the year, based on what's there and how big the beehive is? How do people know how much to take?
Cool video. We have been in the minus 20s and even minus 40 celsius with wind chill over the last 2 weeks here in Quebec. Nice to know whats normal or not. Ive been stressed out for them.
Wow, someone residing in northern Michigan who can use information and communicate. I have hope again and will stay up here a few more months. 😂🤣😂🤔 Subscriber!
I really liked the information you were able to share. I keep a lot of exotic “pets” that aren’t suitable for the area I live in, Minnesota. So I do a lot of research on stuff I want to keep. It’s often -20 or more in the winter months and I saw a video with a guy explaining wintering indoors. The problem is I don’t know if this was just a demonstration or if he’s actually keeping them inside. Comments are turned off so I was unable to ask. Can I winter my hive in my basement? If I can what steps would I take so they don’t end up in my house.
Thanks for the Video. I liked and Subscribed. I noticed the Detroit Tigers baseball cap that you are wearing - and see that you are from Newaygo Michigan. I bees at my place Up North in Luther Michigan (near Cadillac) - would enjoy talking to another Michigan bee keeper... we have it tough with our winter and all the mytes..
I think I just replied to your email, but in case these are separate people, lol, yeah I'm from Hesperia, Michigan. I have family in Detroit, and grew up in White Cloud, went to high school and played hockey at Big Rapids, so not far from Luther or Cadillac at all.
So helpful thank you. I just wish I would have seen this earlier. I am in northern british Columbia. Your winter u described sounds very much like mine. I started this fall with 3 hives. I have already lost one. And usually for me hive loss will happen in spring. I am so stressed I will loose my other 2 hives. I have been feeding but not dry sugar feeding. I will research more on how to do this. The hive I lost was my strongest and most productive hive this summer. I did not mite control this fall. I just did not want to stress my hives anymore than I had to because of the dry dry summer and the incessant wasp and yellow jacket attacks they endured. My bad. When I pulled apart my dead hive I think the hive lost their queen and were in the process of trying to replace her but ran out of time.
Yeah that's always hard. The best you can do is learn from it and try not to repeat it. And remember going forward that although our mite treatments and other efforts we take to control mites are stressful and not always the most fun, they are done with the goal of removing the #1 stress that our bees face.
Hello my friend beard man. I have a question for you. I live in NYC, and have a question about overwintering. If my hive in winter is sheltered by a lot of buildings and does not get any sunlight, will they far well? The good side is they are sheltered considerably from wind. Thanks.
Awesome vid Brett, did you make a video on using the moisture board? As a bee keeper for 10 yrs have not used them and had hit or miss results. Getting it right once and for all in western Massachusetts would make me feel better thanks.
Hi Jason, I just asked the same question. I live in Gloucester. There seems to be so many methods that beekeepers use that I've watched and now I'm confused. I did buy the moisture board but I'm wondering if I should use it with a frame box of shavings or burlap??
Fantastic video. My wife and I live in Concord,NH so winter is definitely a factor here. This is our first season of bee keeping and we are learning as we go. We presently have one hive which seems to be doing well but we are worried about the approaching winter months. We have the means of overwintering the bees in a garden shed with access for them to come and go as needed. Does this sound reasonable or too excessive a measure ?
I don't mess with moisture boards anymore, but when I did the moisture board went over the inner cover. Yes, leave your entrance reducers off for the winter. Keep them on until it freezes and then pull them off and keep them off all winter. The bees need that ventilation space, and they need a wide open area to be able to pull the dead bees out.
@@BlanchardsBees I don't use anything, just open entrances, both top and bottom, and tons of food, and keep the mites under control all year long. If you do all of that, those bees will survive.
I am just south of you in Michigan (north of Muskegon) and this is my first year keeping bees. I only have one hive that I'd like to try and get through the winter. I have an old barn on my property that doesnt leak and the floor is covered in straw. No livestock live in there currently. I was thinking of moving my beehive into the barn this winter, there is a big open doorway that faces east so they will get some good sun when its available and also be covered from the elements. I also have two barn cats that live in there and I would assume keep most of the mice population down. Do you think its a wise idea for me to try that?
I am wondering if you have any opinion or experience with overwintering with plastic foundation frames. My instinct is to overwinter on wax foundation frames so that bees can move through a frame when necessary. With plastic, the only movement options are vertical. Also, does plastic hold or transmit heat as readily? I know that winter losses are really bad all over lately so I wonder if the move toward plastic may be a contributing factor. I can see their use in honey supers but maybe not in brood boxes. Thanks
For interested bee keepers. My father who was a bee keeper passed away and we need to sell off some bee hives, we also have boxes that need to be sold. We live in central NY and I found this video to be helpful. If anyone is interested please reply to this comment (if the owner of this video is ok w it). Thank you.
So... I had something new that happened. Wanted to see what you thought about an idea. One of the colonies I had, didn't adapt well to cold winter and snow. It also happened to be cordovan genetics in the colony. I wondered if some genetic lines like say... cordovan, and others, have a harder time adapting to cold and snowy winters, compared to others? When I got it, I didn't know immediately a year ago that it had cordovan genetics in it. But then I started seeing purple bees in some of the other nucs, because of the cordovan trait mixing with the carnis... and the bees in that one were much lighter than others also. Then I realized what it was later. But that was before they couldn't adapt to the snow. This was just curious to think about. Bees are really so much fun.
It looks like he was using the knife to separate the frames. Sometimes you'll see me wrestling with a frame that is difficult to remove because of propolis, that problem is exacerbated with top bar hives because the entire length of the frame is propolized to the adjacent frames. I didn't watch the entire video, but that is my take on it. I have zero top bar experience but I would imagine keeping the frames orderly and removing them from the hive are difficult things that sometimes requires specialized tools.
I was curious about something you said in your video, about leaving your lower entrance is wide open with the exception of hardware cloth. Do you not use an entrance reducer over winter? I'm in Southeastern Pennsylvania and we got a good bit of winter here oh, and I was curious about that point and was hoping you could elaborate a little bit on what you meant.
@@BKBees that's interesting. And you don't have any issues with mice? What are you using any other prevention methods for rodents? I know I have rodents on the ground, and I'm not sure if they can get to the second-story roof, but I'm not putting a past them. But I'm concerned about leaving it open completely because of the rodents. But I'm definitely understanding of the need for ventilation. Great video by the way. Thank you for sharing
I usually have mice in one or two deadouts in the spring per yard. To me the advantages outweigh the mouse issue. If you're super worried about the mice then I'd suggest using a mouse guard and cleaning the entrance of dead bees every week or 10 days.
@@BKBees this will be my first season so right now I'm just getting a pinions from everybody I can but most of them have been from Southern beekeepers and I was looking for people who dealt with colder climates and prolonged Winters to see how they handle overwintering. Your video was very informative and made a lot of sense. And thank you for responding.
@@BKBees I have a vacant lot 1 and 1/4 acre in Okeechobee Florida, I don't know if you might be interested in something like that. It's zoned for commercial and agriculture. I was planning on doing something with it but I change my mind and decide to in Jamaica instead.
thanks Brett for such an informative video about wintering bees. I'm a novice and I have a question about mite load. I have a 2 box hive. I got my bees in mid June. The bees are doing well, plenty of bees in the second box now.. I've been feeding them 2:1 sugar syrup and stopped a few days ago because the daytime temps are not going over 50 degrees. My friend who checked my hive in sept said the hive had about 25 lbs of honey. It took until about the 3rd week in Aug for the gals to start drawing out comb in the upper box. I treated the bees with Apiguard in mid July for 2 weeks and then gave them another treatment right after as directed for another 2 weeks. My friend noted 2 mites on the sticky board 2nd week of Sept. Now it's Oct 23rd, should I be gving the bees another Apiguard treatment with the temps being in the low to high 40's at night here? And should I put a shim between the boxes that has no opening? Also, I did buy a shim with an opening to put on the 2nd box along with a moisture board. Can you do a video about using a moisture board and does the moisture board an alternative to using a stiff fiberboard under the top roof? Guess I'm a bit confused about how to correctly use the moisture board as well. Thanks for your review.
Upper entrance shim should go on top of the top box and underneath the inner cover. Moisture board should go on top of the inner cover. You can do another treatment now but the period of usefulness for that is past. Any affect that has will be on on next year's bees. If I were you I would get them into a good winter configuration and brung them dry sugar in February.
Thanks for the advice and clarification of how to assemble the moisture board. If my bees make it through the winter, I'll save the Apiguard for next year. Wishing you a fruitful next spring with all your bees that made it through the Michigan winter!
Interesting stuff. I'm in northern new york. I will begin keeping bees in the spring I am told by other bee keepers in my area most of thier bees die over the winter. Should I try to heat my hives? Is it possible with all the available information out there that folks here are doing something wrong?
The folks are not taking mites seriously enough. That's the short answer. If everyone who lost most of their hives over winter made sure to keep the mites in check and did mite counts every single month and knew exactly what their mite counts were going into winter, they wouldn't be losing that many colonies anymore. Just make sure they're heavy and healthy and they can deal with the cold quite well.
So as the warm humid thermal layer rises and hits the cold air you allow into the hive through the vent. You’re trying to let the moisture out so it doesn’t condense but you could keep it from condensing in the first place like they do in trees without upper entrances by having the top totally insulated and no ventilated. Tilt the hive forward slightly. Warm moist hive air with low oxygen keeps mite populations low as well. Not only can they maintain the temp they can maintain the humidity as well if you don’t allow the wind and cold air into the top via drafting. Let them draft what they need through the bottom. This old thinking is hard to overcome. The science is in, go see for yourself.
I certainly don't have any issues with condensation or moisture. I don't run upper entrances by rule anymore either though. Either way, I do advise for upper entrances, the extra escape allows for not only the easy regulation of moisture but an emergency entrance should the lower one become clogged with snow, ice or dead bees. The concept of insulation on hives is a tricky one. I certainly don't recommend insulating, as I see way too many beginners spend way too much effort insulating their boxes as they would their houses, and forgetting the more important stuff like weight and health. 99% of discussions about condensation, upper entrances, moisture control and dry sugar in the winter are moot. Healthy bees survive.
@@BKBees oh okay because we have someone that come out to my grandmother's house and I've never seen them but the honey is always dark and really good but I was thinking about putting out my own hive on her property but how and where would I have to put the bees do the don't die in the winter
For a mouse guard you said use a #8 wire cloth, but that has 1/8” squares, did you really mean a #4 which has 1/4” squares? Thanks 🍯🐝 MikeTheBeeGuy 👨🚀
Travis Simms there are tons of problems with that. Put short, you'd either have to keep them in complete darkness or be prepared with lots of bees in your garage. In terms of temperature you would have to keep it at a steady 40 or so degrees, any warmer and you'll get a fully browsed and fully active hive. Look into temperature controlled bee storage, Ian Steppler has great success overwintering inside structures in Manitoba.
B&K Bees I live in Alaska and apparently they die because of the weather that’s why I ask. I want to start becoming more self sufficient and I am starting to research. Thanks for the reply!
Let's hope the lady-bee-keepers are not bearded! Although - in those parts of Michigan - the men are REAL Men.. but so are the women... needless to say... farm animals are very skittish....
