Probably the vast majority of people assume that when winter rolls around, all insects, including Honeybees, go dormant until spring. While many do, Honeybees are different in that they stay relatively active all year round. You won’t see many of them flying outside their hive on the coldest days but believe me, they’re inside quietly buzzing to keep warm. In fact, one of the main reasons Honeybees make honey is as food to last them the winter. They’re like squirrels that way, saving up their nuts until warmer days return.
As a beekeeper your visits do tend to slow down in the winter and I check each hive just once a month between November and February. Basically all I’m looking for are signs of disease and to make sure they have enough food. In case they run out, I’ll give them a sugary paste to keep them going until natural pollen and nectar are available in spring.
Yesterday I paid a visit to my two hives in Laxey, and I really need to come up with better names than Green Hive and White Hive! On approach, everything seemed quiet and as if no one were home. I noted that the mouseguards were still attached firmly and that nothing (meaning mice) could sneak into the warmth of the hive. So far so good!
I cracked the Green Hive open first, because the bees in that colony are easier to handle, and had a peek inside. The bees were gathered in the center frames of the hive and started to wake up when the cold air hit them. A few puffs of smoke and they calmed down though. It was a cold day so I worked quickly to just lift a frame or two before closing the hive back up again.
I’d also brought two small containers of sugar fondant just in case one or both of the hives needed a boost. To my delight, I found that the hive still had nearly a full super of honey, which means they’ll have their own natural honey to last them for awhile longer. In looking in the White Hive I found the same amount of stores so the fondant will be saved for another day.
When I take honey off of my hives in the Autumn, I leave the honey stores in the main Brood Box alone and also leave them an extra ten small (shallow) frames of honey in another box that sits on top of the Brood, called a ‘Super’. My thought is that the honey bees produce for themselves from wildflowers and trees will be far superior to honey made out of sugar syrup.
Sugar syrup honey is produced by bees when the beekeeper takes off most of the honey and then supplements the hive with a drip bucket of sugar water placed on top of the hive. The bees take the sugar water and convert it into a sickly sweet honey that you wouldn’t want to eat yourself. And if you wouldn’t like to eat it, why would you want your bees to?
Saying that, if the year is tough for foraging, I wouldn’t think twice about giving sugar syrup and fondant to my bees. It’s far better to the alternative…a hive of bees that starves.
So all is well with those two hives and I’ll have a look in on my hive in Onchan in the next week when the stormy weather dies down. I haven’t taken a drop of honey off that one though so I’m sure its stores are healthy. I’ll keep the fondant on hand for just in case though.
Have a lovely weekend and catch you next week!
