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My Indoor Wintering Setup

44K views 193 replies 25 participants last post by  Phoebee 
#1 ·
I should get a few pics to upload but my site is a ~8x10 garden shed. I moved to the property this summer and I have had two nearly 100% loss winters. So I decided to keep my bees in the shed this winter. It required some repairs and I insulatedthe shed. I then got electric setup with outlets and lights. I used dryer vents for ventilation on opposite sides of the shed. One has a fan that sucks air in and the other passively lets it out. That is set on a timer to run for half an hour twice a day. I also have a small electric heater in the shed. Right now it's set to a timer and I have approximated the 40 degree setting on it. I do have a thermocube in the mail. It's a neat little device that you plug right in to an outlet. It has a thermostat in it that will only power whatever you plug into it between 35-45 degrees. So when that comes I will simply use that instead of a timer. I have a wireless thermostat in there and the monitor indicates that the temp is between 30-50 right now, but that should be more tightly regulated once the thermocube arrives. My doors are essentially sealed but when it got warm today there were a few bees outside so I wonder if there is a small opening at the base of the door. I just opened the door and let them do their thing.

So anything I should be doing differently?

Should I continue to open the doors on nice days?

Should my fan run more often?

Should I stress out about finding that small crack? It's dang dark in there when I look from inside.

It seems a lot of my loss comes in March when we get a week of subzero temps. Hoping this avoids that problem and I can be more successful in the future. Replacing bees is expensive.
 
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#190 ·
Thanks Ian and Vance and BeePro for that info, I would love to read more about that. I know some of those nucs could be split now and have time to build out before setting them outside--Of course the problem would be queens. I could get some mail order brides,, as it is deffinately to cold for local queens, and drones arn't on the radar yet...
I started making pollen sub available mid Feb. BeePro ,when I started bumping up the temp and of course made sure they had sugar blocks so they wouldn't starve, I've also learned to make my own sub for econamy sake..
I have a feeder rim on them made of 1 by 4s, and on the russians, when I lift the quilt box on top to check their food, the nurse bees cover everything and festoon off the quilt box--LOTs of baby bees in there....

==McBee7==
 
#191 ·
Hey all. Sorry to grave dig my topic but I felt compelled to update this. I have now had this setup for a few years. I can tell you that I have not had a single winter loss since wintering indoors. I'm by no means an expert but this is working out for me.

As of now I am arranging my hives in a semi circle. Pointed towards the door. I open the doors a couple of times a winter for cleansing flights. I am going all in on nucs this year. So I will be wintering more in this shed this coming winter. I may stack nucs on top of the production hives simply as a space saving measure.

I interestingly had one hive come out of this shed HUGE! Three 8 frame deeps with drones. Yes drones. No light. Zero. No flight. So no pollen but yet still they filled up three deeps and made drones. I don't pretend to understand that why but it's exciting to see.

I do have to perform some further upkeep. My insulation needs some redoing due to mice. Otherwise the heating and ventilation systems have been working well.
 
#192 ·
I kept two nucs in an unheated garage last winter, and one before that. The entrances adapt to a vinyl tube going to a window-mounted landing board.

Our winters got 'nuttin' on MN winters. But we, too, not only had survival of the nucs, they came out strong. This year the two nucs were stronger than the outdoor hives. In fact, one of them, after moving it to a full size hive a month ago, just tried to swarm. The queen was caught in time, and is back in the garage in a nuc again.
 
#193 ·
My shed is 100% dark. When I first set it up I took extraordinary lengths to make it pitch black. My garage would never be pitch black. My garage is also not heated nor insulated. So my garage would not make for a great spot. Glad it works for you though.
 
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