# Observation hive wintering?



## Michael Bush

Make sure you have a way to feed them both syrup (or honey) and pollen. If you don't, then put a hole at the top with #7 hardware cloth under it so the pollen will fall through. Make some kind of feeder. This could be a hole for a 20 oz plastic bottle and drill some holes in the cap. If you have a way to feed syrup and pollen, then make sure they go into winter pretty strong (difficult sometimes with an observation hive, but that is the goal). Make sure they don't run out of pollen and honey but be careful not to give them too much pollen or the house bees will haul it out for trash and clog up the tube. Leave them free flying. Leave them in the house. If you don't have a piece of wood under both the window and the storm window, add one. Add a towel or foam rubber or something between the two windows where they overlap as this will leak otherwise. The warm house does not confuse them.

http://www.bushfarms.com/images/ObservationHiveTube1.JPG
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/ObservationHiveTube2.JPG
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesobservationhives.htm

This is how I winter them every year.


----------



## greasyspider

Looks like essentially the same setup I have. I have a mason jar feeder at the bottom of the hive so feeding syrup isn't a problem. But pollen...? Where to get it? Where to put it and how much? What about swarming and overcrowding? Should I just let them do their thing, or is it wiser to try and make splits? Seems like splits would be tough given that there are only four medium frames. What should the frames consist of as winter approaches? How much honey vs brood? The gentleman I bought the observation hive from claimed he alway moved them into Nuc boxes for winter,but I would much rather leave them bee (pun intended). Thanks for the advice!


----------



## Michael Bush

>But pollen...? Where to get it?

You can trap it. You can buy it. Health food stores. C.C. Pollen. Glorybee. Brushy Mt used to have and probably still does...

> Where to put it

Put a hole in the top with #7 hardware cloth under it. Put the pollen in the hole.

> and how much?

When they start to rear some brood after the winter solstice, I would give them about a teaspoon at a time and see what they do with it. No more than that a day is probably good.

> What about swarming and overcrowding? 

Manage them. When they are too strong, pull some brood combs out and give them to one of your other hives. When they are too weak, give them a frame of emerging brood. If they start making swarm cells, pull some frames out with the cells on them and do a small split. Or let them swarm if it's early in the season and get a front row seat to the whole process... afterwards, though, don't be surprised if you have to boost them a bit. if they just need some more bees, you can shake some nurse bees (bees on open brood) into a box with no combs or frames and put the outside entrance of the tube tight against the entrance to the box and the nurse bees will find their way in.

>Should I just let them do their thing, or is it wiser to try and make splits?

You have to micromanage them more since they boom and bust very quickly. But then you get to watch and see the results of your management decisions which will teach you a lot that you might never learn otherwise.

> Seems like splits would be tough given that there are only four medium frames. 

Yes. A two frame box is handy...

>What should the frames consist of as winter approaches? 
>How much honey vs brood? 

Since you can feed them all winter if you need to, I would worry more about the population and the age of the population than about stores. You want them fairly strong going into winter. Sometimes that works out well and sometimes the timing of your splits and the flow cause you to end up going into winter with not as many bees as you would prefer. But you can boost the population (as explained above) come spring even if there is only a handful of bees left in the spring.

>The gentleman I bought the observation hive from claimed he alway moved them into Nuc boxes for winter,but I would much rather leave them bee (pun intended). Thanks for the advice!

Especially in Vermont, I think they will winter much better inside than in a nuc box... We are about as cold, and I would definitely rather winter them in the observation hive.


----------



## greasyspider

Thank you! Your response is tremendously helpful. One last question: I have 2 frames packed with brood. I mean packed. I have 2 empty frames also. They seem to be ignoring the upper 2 frames. One is fairly well drawn, but empty it seems. They are building burr comb in straight lines on the glass, but only up as high as the 2nd frame of brood. Should I switch the frames around, or just leave them alone? These bees were installed on june 6. My other hives are into their 2nd box right now.


----------

