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Every year I try new configurations of wintering my bees here in Central WI. Since all beekeeping is local, each keeper of the bees has to figure for themselves what works best FOR THEM.
I have experimented with multiple configurations each year. Double 10 frame boxes, Double5 frame boxes, single 10 frame, triple 5 frame, Double 4/4 configurations, single 10 frame with frame feeder, pushing hives together, separated, wrapped in tar paper, wrapped in reflectix, no wrap, upper entrance, entrance reducer, full open entrance, wood chips, solid foam board.
Slowly I'm dialing in what works.
First and foremost I have learned that a weak colony has almost zero chance of survival, so a waste of my time and resources to try.
Second, the colony must have a low mite count starting in August when honey comes off and winter bees are starting to be produced.
Third, the colonies need to be full up to weight starting directly after honey supers are removed. By October, bees will not take feed very well and have little time to cure it.
Fourth, a strain of bee that slow plays its resources during winter months and can survive without supplemental feeding.
Those four items are a necessity before hive configuration even comes into play.
For me, I've started dialing it in a bit. My last year, I had my best survival rate with the following configurations.
Single 10 frame brood box with 2 frame feeder (leaves 8 frames), wide open bottom entrance (with hardware cloth mouseguard). Reflectix inner cover, 2" ridgid foam board under the lid. No wrap.
For nucleus colonies, a double 5/5 configuration with a wide open bottom entrance (hardware cloth), reflectix inner cover with 2" ridgid insulation under the lid. No wrap.
Upper venting on all hives consisted of a feeder shim with a 5/8" hole for upper entrance/upper vent.
Sugar was placed later in the season to stop the bees from moving up too quickly and passing up honey stores.
I saw no advantage of having the hives sandwiched together...in fact most of the inner colonies perished while the outside hives survived. Was the extra warmth keeping them more active and then blew through their stores? was it just a poor strain of bees? Unknown.
This year my experimenting continues. Based on a Dave Cushman article from years ago, I am eliminating the upper vents. Although his weather differs from my own, his reasoning made sense about the chimney effect. He postulated that while it seems reasonable to believe that an upper vent will help eliminate moisture, the reality was a bit different on how the bees manipulate their cluster space.
I realize this is a gamble, but this is how I learn.
I've had real good success with a couple types of bees, not so much for another.
My Minnesota hygeinic Carniolans, were my most prolific honey producers and survived winter well. They are also my most defensive colonies.....
My New River Honey Bee Carniolans that I had open mated in my yard were also some of my best hives. They survive winter well...they produce less honey as they tend to put more honey in brood nest than other strains which may be why I produce less disposable honey in the supers. Very gentle bees.
My Italians I have acquired from various sources including many captured swarms from commercial beekeepers tend to build up huge, swarm easily, produce good honey, but due to such active brood productions and large colonies, they blow through their stores quickly in winter and require monitoring or they will starver out.
These are just my own observations.
Where I get my queens, matters. I've been doing my own grafting this year, but this program is just starting.
Where I get my queens matters.....I've had poor success getting queens out of California. Bought 4 New World Carni's from Strachian Apiaries this year.....all were accepted, but all started very shotgun patterns.....3 disappeared over 2 months without the colony successfully superceding. One was given the hive tool test and replaced after 2 months.
I bought some Palmer queens in 2019, they also never laid very well and disappeared in their colonies heading into winter. Mike had said he had a difficult queen rearing year, so that may have been the issue.
New River queens were from a club breeder queen that was acquired. The club grafted and I acquired 4 virgins I had open mated in my yard....they are all entering their 2nd winter. I have been using these queens to graft from.
Minnesota Hygeinics are really a hardy breed...but they are not fun without smoke...and are the type to chase you back to your truck from my experience.
Anyway, it's another winter to experiment until I nail down a system I'm fully happy with.
This fall I had my worst post honey flow swarm issue ever. The year prior I took shook swarms off, but this year I did not have the normal time to do it. I lost my best MNH queen I had to a post honey flow swarm.....but I did manage to create 4 late splits from her swarm cells. Crossing my fingers that they had enough time to brood up heading into winter....took them a long time to start laying.
Next year all my production hives will get split into 5/5 nucs and added to grafted queens. I had enough of bees in trees.
I have experimented with multiple configurations each year. Double 10 frame boxes, Double5 frame boxes, single 10 frame, triple 5 frame, Double 4/4 configurations, single 10 frame with frame feeder, pushing hives together, separated, wrapped in tar paper, wrapped in reflectix, no wrap, upper entrance, entrance reducer, full open entrance, wood chips, solid foam board.
Slowly I'm dialing in what works.
First and foremost I have learned that a weak colony has almost zero chance of survival, so a waste of my time and resources to try.
Second, the colony must have a low mite count starting in August when honey comes off and winter bees are starting to be produced.
Third, the colonies need to be full up to weight starting directly after honey supers are removed. By October, bees will not take feed very well and have little time to cure it.
Fourth, a strain of bee that slow plays its resources during winter months and can survive without supplemental feeding.
Those four items are a necessity before hive configuration even comes into play.
For me, I've started dialing it in a bit. My last year, I had my best survival rate with the following configurations.
Single 10 frame brood box with 2 frame feeder (leaves 8 frames), wide open bottom entrance (with hardware cloth mouseguard). Reflectix inner cover, 2" ridgid foam board under the lid. No wrap.
For nucleus colonies, a double 5/5 configuration with a wide open bottom entrance (hardware cloth), reflectix inner cover with 2" ridgid insulation under the lid. No wrap.
Upper venting on all hives consisted of a feeder shim with a 5/8" hole for upper entrance/upper vent.
Sugar was placed later in the season to stop the bees from moving up too quickly and passing up honey stores.
I saw no advantage of having the hives sandwiched together...in fact most of the inner colonies perished while the outside hives survived. Was the extra warmth keeping them more active and then blew through their stores? was it just a poor strain of bees? Unknown.
This year my experimenting continues. Based on a Dave Cushman article from years ago, I am eliminating the upper vents. Although his weather differs from my own, his reasoning made sense about the chimney effect. He postulated that while it seems reasonable to believe that an upper vent will help eliminate moisture, the reality was a bit different on how the bees manipulate their cluster space.
I realize this is a gamble, but this is how I learn.
I've had real good success with a couple types of bees, not so much for another.
My Minnesota hygeinic Carniolans, were my most prolific honey producers and survived winter well. They are also my most defensive colonies.....
My New River Honey Bee Carniolans that I had open mated in my yard were also some of my best hives. They survive winter well...they produce less honey as they tend to put more honey in brood nest than other strains which may be why I produce less disposable honey in the supers. Very gentle bees.
My Italians I have acquired from various sources including many captured swarms from commercial beekeepers tend to build up huge, swarm easily, produce good honey, but due to such active brood productions and large colonies, they blow through their stores quickly in winter and require monitoring or they will starver out.
These are just my own observations.
Where I get my queens, matters. I've been doing my own grafting this year, but this program is just starting.
Where I get my queens matters.....I've had poor success getting queens out of California. Bought 4 New World Carni's from Strachian Apiaries this year.....all were accepted, but all started very shotgun patterns.....3 disappeared over 2 months without the colony successfully superceding. One was given the hive tool test and replaced after 2 months.
I bought some Palmer queens in 2019, they also never laid very well and disappeared in their colonies heading into winter. Mike had said he had a difficult queen rearing year, so that may have been the issue.
New River queens were from a club breeder queen that was acquired. The club grafted and I acquired 4 virgins I had open mated in my yard....they are all entering their 2nd winter. I have been using these queens to graft from.
Minnesota Hygeinics are really a hardy breed...but they are not fun without smoke...and are the type to chase you back to your truck from my experience.
Anyway, it's another winter to experiment until I nail down a system I'm fully happy with.
This fall I had my worst post honey flow swarm issue ever. The year prior I took shook swarms off, but this year I did not have the normal time to do it. I lost my best MNH queen I had to a post honey flow swarm.....but I did manage to create 4 late splits from her swarm cells. Crossing my fingers that they had enough time to brood up heading into winter....took them a long time to start laying.
Next year all my production hives will get split into 5/5 nucs and added to grafted queens. I had enough of bees in trees.
Have a great day!
