Ian Steppler in Miami Manitoba has great videos on YouTube about indoor wintering. He is very particular about humidity, ventilation and temperature. He also blacks out light. Once they are in, they do not come out until spring. A Canadian Beekeepers Blog is his YouTube channel.Just put bees in a heated shed Don't know if the weather gets nice if I should open up the doors to leave them fly?
Not quite true. This year it got to warm a few days after he had them in, so they all came out again, and went back in a few days later.Ian Steppler in Miami Manitoba has great videos on YouTube about indoor wintering. He is very particular about humidity, ventilation and temperature. He also blacks out light. Once they are in, they do not come out until spring. A Canadian Beekeepers Blog is his YouTube channel.
thank you very muchin the past there were some canadian beeks on here, use this thread Ian posted much information about how to do it, look up posts from some of the other canadian beeks for information. CO2 levels with Indoor Wintering Honeybees
I'm in Northwest Ohio I prepared the hives for outside storage last year and lost them all.Boogie, where are you located? Indoor wintering of hives is usually reserved for areas that see extreme cold. Also, I believe that Ian cools his bee sheds because the bees produce too much heat. Best is right around 40°F. In the US north, most people just insulate the hives and are done with it. If you have days during the winter you think the bees may be able to fly, I doubt it gets cold enough to even require that.
I used a honey super on top that had two inches of wood chips in it and on top of the wood chips I had 10lbs of sugar with a tunnel running through the wood chips so they could get to the sugar plus they each had about 40lbs of honey mixed with the brood, at the start of winter they were not real strong hives but I didn't they were to bad. I opened them in the spring and both were dead and both were clustered in the bottom super and stuck together very disheartening. So I thought I would try something different.Boogie, if you are in Ohio, your bees did NOT freeze to death. I would look at other causes for colonies to not make it through winter. Inadequate moisture control measures (wet bees are dead bees) and starvation are the most common ones that are not varroa mite related. When was your last mite treatment and what did you use?
I saw the video about taking them back out but didn’t feel it material to mention it. Geez.Not quite true. This year it got to warm a few days after he had them in, so they all came out again, and went back in a few days later.
heated to what temp?Just put bees in a heated shed Don't know if the weather gets nice if I should open up the doors to leave them fly?
Our temp has been holding between 26 to 34 degrees outside but with no heater turned on yet they keep it 12 degrees higher than outside with just their body heat and it's completely dark inside. I'm a little worried because it's supposed to be 50° out next week.heated to what temp?
can you make it "Dark"
GG
IF it is completely dark, they "should" just come out to the entrance then go back in.Our temp has been holding between 26 to 34 degrees outside but with no heater turned on yet they keep it 12 degrees higher than outside with just their body heat and it's completely dark inside. I'm a little worried because it's supposed to be 50° out next week.