It's Autumn. Now what?

[staythecourse]

I kept a hive alive for a summer due to God's grace. It's fall and now what do I do?

Give me a top 10 list of things to do for the Kentucky area.

I have:

One small hive
A nice place out of the wind
No medication for the bees
No food for them
No tar paper
No honey to harvest this year
No time to waste.

Thanks. You all are a blessing.

[MCC]

Well, I just heard last night at our local bee club that feeding sugar on top of newspaper on top of the frames works real well and it helps with the moisture problem. I'm up in Chicagoland and don't plan on wrapping with anything, maybe a wind block. Good Luck. I'm planning on bringing my splits down to English, IN in the spring. Thats 48 miles from Louisville on the Indiana side. I'll be looking for a local beek club.

[BeeAware]

Be sure the colony is queenright, has enough winter stores or feed it, tilt it so the entrance is a little lower so rain will not enter the hive, provide a means for moisture to escape when the temps cool. I prop the inner cover up a tiny bit with a popscicle stick so that condensation is not a problem. Cold temps will not kill your bees, cold water dripping down on them will. Don't forget to check on the amount of pollen in the hive. They will need this to rear the bees that will over winter. If they lack pollen stores, feed them some substitute or supplement.

[Ross]

Until hard freeze, I would feed syrup. After hard freeze, if they need stores, I would feed dry sugar on newspaper.

[staythecourse]

Well, I just heard last night at our local bee club that feeding sugar on top of newspaper on top of the frames works real well and it helps with the moisture problem. I'm up in Chicagoland and don't plan on wrapping with anything, maybe a wind block. Good Luck. I'm planning on bringing my splits down to English, IN in the spring. Thats 48 miles from Louisville on the Indiana side. I'll be looking for a local beek club.

48 miles is spitting-distance. If I had a beek club, I would pass it on to you. I am sure others can give you several leads. Thanks for the tip about sugar.

[staythecourse]

Be sure the colony is queenright, has enough winter stores or feed it, tilt it so the entrance is a little lower so rain will not enter the hive, provide a means for moisture to escape when the temps cool. I prop the inner cover up a tiny bit with a popscicle stick so that condensation is not a problem. Cold temps will not kill your bees, cold water dripping down on them will. Don't forget to check on the amount of pollen in the hive. They will need this to rear the bees that will over winter. If they lack pollen stores, feed them some substitute or supplement.

Until hard freeze, I would feed syrup. After hard freeze, if they need stores, I would feed dry sugar on newspaper.

Thanks for the advice.

"Queen-right" to me means she's alive. That's it I assume, true?

Any rules of thumb on how to gauge if they have enough pollen? If they don't have enough, how much substitute is enough?

Take care.

[Putz]

I like them to have 2 frames of pollen or so per box in the broodnest.

[staythecourse]

I like them to have 2 frames of pollen or so per box in the broodnest.

So what do you think. If I live in an area where the temperature will usually range 20's to 30's for a large part of the winter will 2 do or (my guess) 4 frames of pollen?

Thanks.