# How do you like to winter your bees?



## flinter17 (May 6, 2009)

I live in the west of Michigan and we get quite cold and quite a bit of snow as well. I have started 3 hives this year and am trying to keep things as natural as i know. 
What are some way's that you like to over winter your bee's/ or way's that have not worked so well? Thanks.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I like to winter my bees in SC, instead of NY.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

sqkcrk said:


> I like to winter my bees in SC, instead of NY.


Sissy!


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## pcelar (Oct 5, 2007)

Michael Palmer said:


> Sissy!


Ditto.


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## hillhousehoney (Oct 7, 2008)

This is my first year back to bees after about 10 years away. I plan to close my screened bottom boards, close the bottom entrance, and shim up the inner cover to created a top entrance to allow for better ventilation. My stores are light, so may have to feed. I will not be wrapping, but rather enclosing in a sort of box deal to cut down on wind, but not seal so tight as to cause other problems. Will have to see how it goes. Let's hope for a mild winter. . . . haha !


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Michael Palmer said:


> Sissy!


Sorry Mark. Couldn't resist. Will yo try to winter any of those queens I sent you...in NY I mean.


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## Rohe Bee Ranch (Feb 12, 2008)

At DisneyWorld.


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## JOHNYOGA2 (Sep 30, 2008)

Flinter,
I am considerably South of you, but I keep my SBB open all year. My hives are on stands about 18" off the ground (which is actually too high). We get an average of 25" of snow all winter, so I don't really "need" an upper enterance. I do however, use a shallow super with 4 one inch holes drilled through. I use window screen over these holes, and place the shallow above the inner cover. I also put some sheets of newspaper covered by pine needles on top of the inner cover, but not so much as to obscure the top hole or the super ventilation holes. I find that this allows for a lot of top ventilation. Here moisture is a much bigger problem then the cold. It is not unusual for us to have a very wet November and December, then snow in January and Early February, followed by more rain from late February till April. It sometimes seems like we go for months without seeing the Sun!


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Michael Palmer said:


> Sorry Mark. Couldn't resist. Will yo try to winter any of those queens I sent you...in NY I mean.


Boo hoo. You guys are soooo mean to me. I can't even think about answering your question.

But really, most of them are in five frame nucs and not really very heavy w/ honey. Do you think if I fed them sugar syrup and put them somewhere where they would be out of the wind, but exposed to the south, that I could get very many through the winter alive?

a friend of mine, even in the south, winters double story five frame nucs, ten to a pallet, w/ a "quilt" made of two parallel sheets of insulation wrapped in black plastic. If I leave the nucs in NY I'll probably do that too.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

sqkcrk said:


> But really, most of them are in five frame nucs and not really very heavy w/ honey. Do you think if I fed them sugar syrup and put them somewhere where they would be out of the wind, but exposed to the south, that I could get very many through the winter alive?


It's getting late to feed up here in the north. They'll probably take a couple gallons of 2:1. If they aren't ready for winter yet, maybe best to do South Carolina.


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

I think the biggest thing to consider when wintering honeybees in Michigan is location. If you don’t have a spot that provides a good wind break like a woods or building. Provide one. Bails of straw stacked on the prevailing wind side works well.
Last winter I took a chance by leaving six hives in an area that was exposed to wind. Back to back blizzards in January knocked off five of the six hives. The only survivor was the one behind a dense bush.


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## BeePuncher (May 25, 2007)

flinter17 said:


> I live in the west of Michigan and we get quite cold and quite a bit of snow as well. I have started 3 hives this year and am trying to keep things as natural as i know.
> What are some way's that you like to over winter your bee's/ or way's that have not worked so well? Thanks.


In the spirit of experimentation and sheer curiosity, I have tried many overwintering techniques ranging from nothing to western wraps - I am in eastern Ontario so my experiences should be relevant to you. 

Method 1: Nothing. It is surprising that many colonies can survive up here with no protection, save for the benefits of your location (avoid hollows where cold air can pool or total open spaces where the wind can whip them savagely). I have had gangbuster colonies in the spring that went into winter with a huge and young population with decent amounts of honey stores. This is your first tip: without those sound fundamentals all else can be a total gambit. Doing nothing of course is risky since they would burn through their honey stores faster and could starve without intervention. That means more work for you in the spring with alot of hand wringing!

Method 2: Those cheap black cardboard covers that slide over the hive add a bit of protection from the wind, and to me the results are the same as doing nothing. I know alot of people who only do this with several hundred colonies and seem satisfied.

Method 3: Snow. Yes, banking up snow around the back three sides or even burying them has been a method some old-timers used. One year I used my snowblower to bury a half dozen (then open up the upper entrance, bottoms are always buried here) and it seemed to work, looks cool too - igloo hives! But of course the snow settles, melts, freezes and you have to keep too much of an eye on it. Our winters are damp here so I don't like the idea of creating a potentially icy tomb, it apparently works well in places with dry fluffy snow.

Method 4: Indoor wintering has to be one of the trickiest things to do, since we all know that it is moisture not cold alone that is the enemy. A few winters ago I placed ten hives in the barn to see how they would do - they battled condensation like mad and dwindled accordingly. The barn was on average seven degrees Celsius warmer than the outdoor beeyard. I am sure there are great indoor wintering schemes, but you would have to be really careful. I know of one guy who stores them a warehouse, unheated and has a fancy setup for moving air and humidity. 

Method 5: Hands down in this climate is the western wrap (originating in northern Alberta I believe). The idea is to take bats of fluffy insulation and sandwich them in thick black plastic, then wrap around the hives by tying them with twine or something similar. You also place some kind of insulation on the inner cover (I like the insulation tied in a bag and stuffed into an empty shallow super).

I made up a bunch of these years ago, bought a huge roll of heavy plastic and bales of insulation. Initially expensive but the thick plastic means more longevity. Whether you are doing one, two or four you simply measure around the hives you want to wrap. Make sure to leave enough to cover a few inches around the edge on the top of the hive. 

Start by sandwiching the insulation bat between the two pieces of plastic you just finished measuring and cutting. Get some aluminum foil from your kitchen and an iron. Place a section of foil under the first layer of plastic at the edge (against the floor), then put another section of foil on top of the second piece of plastic. Pass the hot iron and close the seam - the foil prevents any sticking should you start to melt the plastic. The original plans say you should take a hole puncher and make some holes on the bottom to let it breathe.

It is good to have a helper with the wrapping too, that plastic is thick and kind of a pain to bend at corners, slippery too. You also have to staple down around the upper entrance. Wrap late in the season, you don't want to have these on when there are still flying days. Wrapping late insures the bees do what they have to do to prep for the winter without any false sense endless fall!

The thing I would change is to forget the black plastic and use clear instead. While black plastic does warm in the sun, clear plastic will warm the insulation. I had a hard time finding the super thick black stuff from the construction supply places, they had plenty of clear on hand in the same thickness. 

If I remember any other details I will share them with you, but that seems to be the basics. Good luck!


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Michael Palmer said:


> It's getting late to feed up here in the north. They'll probably take a couple gallons of 2:1. If they aren't ready for winter yet, maybe best to do South Carolina.


Yeah, probably. But I am also thinking about leaving some of the singles that are 6 to a pallet. Some of them are lead heavy. And in a protected location, though I won't be able to get to it after the snow flys unless I get out the snow shoes. I'm thinking about putting a rim on them and applying 5 or 10 lbs of sugar.

We'll see.


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