>I'm hoping to get a concise answer on what I should be doing at this point.
Unfortunately every beekeeper has their method and I don't think there is a concise answer. It differs by climate, beekeeper, strength of colony etc.
>I'm a first year beekeeper, in central Michigan. I've got three hives, all doing pretty well.
Like two deeps full of bees? One deep full of bees?
>I finally pulled the supers off my hive last night, 24 hours after our first hard frost.
Sounds good, although there may still be some goldenrod blooming until you get a really hard freeze. Keep an eye out and watch to see if anything is blooming.
>The question I have is, now what? How do I maximize the chances of them making it through the winter?
The best way, I know of, to get any hive through winter is to have a strong hive with plenty of stores. In my climate that's a queenright hive in three medium boxes full of bees and stores or two deep boxes full of bees and stores. When I've started with that, and a mouse gaurd on, and no significant amount of varroa I've always made it through the winter.
>1) All three hives are packed to the gills with honey. Should I be feeding them sugar syrup at this point? What is the point of this, I don't see any place for them to stick it.
I think you already answered this question. If they have lot's of stores there is probably no point in feeding them. One use for feeding late into the year is to keep them raising young bees to get through the winter with. This really only works as long as there is pollen. But we are to the point now (here anyway) that probably the bees we have are the ones that will overwinter and not much more brood will get raised even if we feed.
>Is this just so that they don't start eating their winter stores until absolutely necessary?
I would keep an eye on things. If the weather gets warm and they raise some brood they may put a good dent in those stores. If it gets cold and they stop raising brood, they may not use much at all.
>2) I've been told they need a windbreak. I'm planning on putting up two layers of snowfence around the hives.
A windbreak won't hurt. I've never put one up though. It probably helps, but it's not necessary.
>How about wrapping? Is that really necessary?
I've never wrapped hives, but the consensus of Northern beekeepers who have experimented with wrapping and not is that they come through the winter better wrapped. No, it's not necessary.
>3) I assume reducing the entrance to the smallest size is important.
How small it is, I don't think is nearly so important as the mousegaurd. But if you don't use a mousegaurd it's more important. I reduce the entrance more to keep out pests and robbers than to keep out the cold.
>How about an upper entrance
I think an upper entrance is essential to good overwintering both to let out the moist air to prevent condensation and to allow an exit when the snow is too high or too many dead bees have blocked the bottom enrance. On warm days (even with snow on the ground) the bees need to be able to take cleansing flights.
>and hardware cloth over the entrance? Necessary?
1/4 hardware cloth is what I like for a mouse gaurd. A mouse gaurd will save some colonies. I lose a few to mice anytime I don't use mouse gaurds. Necessary? Not if you're willing to lose one out of ten colonies to the mice.
>4) Anything I missed?
Make sure you don't have a queen excluder on over winter. The queen will get trapped below it when the cluster moves up. I try to minimize empty space. There's no point in a lot of extra space for them to take care of.
>Edit: Slightly related note - how long can I safely keep unextracted but capped frames around? They are in my basement, protected from insects and animals, except potentially from the occasional indoor ants and flys.
The honey won't keep that long in the basement once the wax moths hatch. They will keep much longer outside as long as there is freezing weather. When it freezes it kills the moths, if you have them beeproofed (closed up tightly enough the bees can't get to it, it will keep better outside for the winter. Right now I still have too many moths here. They are thick in the feeders. We've had a frost, but not a hard enough freeze to kill the moths.
Once spring gets here then you have to worry about moths and ants etc. and I'd either extract or put them on the hives so they can guard them.
Unfortunately every beekeeper has their method and I don't think there is a concise answer. It differs by climate, beekeeper, strength of colony etc.
>I'm a first year beekeeper, in central Michigan. I've got three hives, all doing pretty well.
Like two deeps full of bees? One deep full of bees?
>I finally pulled the supers off my hive last night, 24 hours after our first hard frost.
Sounds good, although there may still be some goldenrod blooming until you get a really hard freeze. Keep an eye out and watch to see if anything is blooming.
>The question I have is, now what? How do I maximize the chances of them making it through the winter?
The best way, I know of, to get any hive through winter is to have a strong hive with plenty of stores. In my climate that's a queenright hive in three medium boxes full of bees and stores or two deep boxes full of bees and stores. When I've started with that, and a mouse gaurd on, and no significant amount of varroa I've always made it through the winter.
>1) All three hives are packed to the gills with honey. Should I be feeding them sugar syrup at this point? What is the point of this, I don't see any place for them to stick it.
I think you already answered this question. If they have lot's of stores there is probably no point in feeding them. One use for feeding late into the year is to keep them raising young bees to get through the winter with. This really only works as long as there is pollen. But we are to the point now (here anyway) that probably the bees we have are the ones that will overwinter and not much more brood will get raised even if we feed.
>Is this just so that they don't start eating their winter stores until absolutely necessary?
I would keep an eye on things. If the weather gets warm and they raise some brood they may put a good dent in those stores. If it gets cold and they stop raising brood, they may not use much at all.
>2) I've been told they need a windbreak. I'm planning on putting up two layers of snowfence around the hives.
A windbreak won't hurt. I've never put one up though. It probably helps, but it's not necessary.
>How about wrapping? Is that really necessary?
I've never wrapped hives, but the consensus of Northern beekeepers who have experimented with wrapping and not is that they come through the winter better wrapped. No, it's not necessary.
>3) I assume reducing the entrance to the smallest size is important.
How small it is, I don't think is nearly so important as the mousegaurd. But if you don't use a mousegaurd it's more important. I reduce the entrance more to keep out pests and robbers than to keep out the cold.
>How about an upper entrance
I think an upper entrance is essential to good overwintering both to let out the moist air to prevent condensation and to allow an exit when the snow is too high or too many dead bees have blocked the bottom enrance. On warm days (even with snow on the ground) the bees need to be able to take cleansing flights.
>and hardware cloth over the entrance? Necessary?
1/4 hardware cloth is what I like for a mouse gaurd. A mouse gaurd will save some colonies. I lose a few to mice anytime I don't use mouse gaurds. Necessary? Not if you're willing to lose one out of ten colonies to the mice.
>4) Anything I missed?
Make sure you don't have a queen excluder on over winter. The queen will get trapped below it when the cluster moves up. I try to minimize empty space. There's no point in a lot of extra space for them to take care of.
>Edit: Slightly related note - how long can I safely keep unextracted but capped frames around? They are in my basement, protected from insects and animals, except potentially from the occasional indoor ants and flys.
The honey won't keep that long in the basement once the wax moths hatch. They will keep much longer outside as long as there is freezing weather. When it freezes it kills the moths, if you have them beeproofed (closed up tightly enough the bees can't get to it, it will keep better outside for the winter. Right now I still have too many moths here. They are thick in the feeders. We've had a frost, but not a hard enough freeze to kill the moths.
Once spring gets here then you have to worry about moths and ants etc. and I'd either extract or put them on the hives so they can guard them.
