Bees during the winter

At this time of the year we can't do much more for the bees in northern hemisphere. In regions with freezing winter, we can just check the state in the hive. Although I wouldn't suggest to disturb bees much. You can do observation at the hive entrance with no harm. In warm days bees will fly out and you can get some kind of strength evaluation. If you see that bees can't guard the entrance, you can still reduce according to the strength of the colony. It is also good time to install protection against rodents and birds. Some are using steel entrance reducers for that purpose. If the wood around the entrance is in good shape, you could just insert wooden reducer, e.g. cut piece of wood or part of wooden entrance closer. To push birds away you can install scarecrow. Think about feeding birds at list 50m away from the beehouse to get them concentrated away from the hives and get used to the winter feeders instead searching for the bees at the hive entrances. If the condition is very bad, it is also possible to install kind of fence or wires to keep birds away but let bees to fly normal.

What about inside of the hive? Beekeepers usually take out combs from honey section and use some kind of plate to cover brood chamber. Above it you can put two sheets of newspaper and it is nice if it passes over the inner window of the brood chamber. This is light insulation inside of the hive to reduce airflow and hit loss. During the winter is not needed more. You can do after first cleansing flights to the end of the winter, when bees start also foraging for pollen. New brood need exact temperature regulation and insulation is welcome. Nowadays there are some beekeepers that take out all inner windows and queen excluder in Fall. That allows them to make easier application with oxalic acid, the best after last bees are emerged. That could be at the beginning of the November. Otherwise you should open the hive and inner window carefully to do that treatment with using long needle on big syringe. That is described in the book.

Empty space above the cluster is natural situation. This year I observed bees in hollow tree trunks at the beekeeper near Kobarid. It looks like bees can nicely build combs also from bellow toward the top. Although it is hard to recommend what is the best practice. There really exist many practices with AŽ hive. Overwintering alone is not a problem. Bees just need a good storage of the food. Some extra space could be useful for less humid micro-climate. When starts spring and early development then constant good insulation can help to get much faster development of the colonies. In case of early strong nectar flow that is very welcome. In such case we can get some special early honey like cherry honey or maple honey.

 Tree trunk from Sužid

Colony inside the same trunk.
There is empty space above the nest.