7 Helpful Tips to Keep Your Bees Happy and Healthy This Winter
Avoid Hive Inspections
To protect your hive during this time of year, it’s best to avoid inspections unless absolutely necessary, as they could cause harm to the colony. Here are a few ways inspections can be harmful:
- You could accidentally kill your queen by mishandling a frame or some other miss-hap and it is too late in the year to get a replacement and integrate her into the colony
- Leaving the hive open for too long can attract scout bees from other colonies, which might lead to robbing as they search for food before winter
- If the hive stays open too long in cooler temperatures, it can chill the brood and affect the development of your important “Winter Bees”
Avoid Breaking Propolis Seal
Your bees have likely sealed up any cracks in the hive with propolis to protect against the wind and cold for the winter. If the propolis seal is broken, it might be too cold for it to reseal properly, leaving your hive less protected and causing the bees to work harder to stay warm. On warmer days, the propolis may soften and reseal, but if the temperatures remain cold, it might not.
Feed Your Bees
Feeding your bees in November is important to prevent them from using up their stored honey before winter. Large or strong colonies may start consuming their winter stores early, leaving them with fewer resources for the colder months. Feeding helps keep their reserves full and your bees well-fed. If the daily temperature is 50°F or higher, you can feed them 1:1 syrup (with any additives you like) using an inside or top feeder—just avoid using entrance feeders. If the temperature stays below 50°F, it’s better to feed them fondant, winter patties, or candy as an insurance policy.
Install Mouse Guards
If you haven’t put on a mouse guard yet, now is the perfect time! As the weather gets colder and fields are harvested, mice start looking for warmer shelter, and your hive might look like a cozy new home. A mouse guard will help keep them out and protect your bees.
Keep on Robber Screens
If you’ve been dealing with robbing issues and have put a robber screen on your hive, it’s a good idea to keep it in place a little longer. This will help protect your bees from any last- minute robbing that could threaten your colony. With the weather being warm, bees might be out and about, looking for a good source of honey to take back home. Keeping your robbing screen on will give your bees a better chance to thrive.
Wrap Your Hive
If you like to wrap your hives for winter, then this is the time to do it. Whether you use foam board, roofing paper, pink insulation or bee cozies the time to put them on is now.
Setup Wind Breaks
Take a moment to figure out which direction the wind usually comes from in your area, and consider setting up a windbreak to support your bees. This could be a fence, a temporary structure, some piled-up brush, or even stacked hay bales. Anything you do to block the wind will help keep your bees cozy during the winter. Your efforts can make a big difference for them!
Take a Deep Breath and Relax
It’s completely okay if you didn’t manage everything perfectly or if time didn’t allow you to care for your bees as much as you wanted. Life can be busy with work, doctor’s appointments, running kids around, etc., and beekeeping can’t be your only focus. What matters is that you did your best with the time and resources you had. Even if your bees don’t make it through the winter—though we hope they do—you still have a hive with drawn comb, and you’ve gained valuable knowledge about beekeeping that will help you next year. Remember, none of us did everything we wanted with our bees this year, so you are definitely not alone.