Thats a Wrap - wrapping up the bee year

So many people say...."What do your bees do in the winter? Do they hibernate? Do you send them down south?" Nope. They stay right where they are. But before I get into that let's do a quick update.

• I started this year with three new packages. Getting them all in their new homes was quite an adventure.  One of my queens flew off and I was hopeful that she returned. 
• Once I realized that she was gone and I did indeed have a laying worker, I was faced with figuring out how to get a new queen accepted into my hive. Laying workers are hard to correct but I was able to get the hive (Alveare) to accept their new queen. She was very far behind in growing her colony for our short season here in Minnesota. 
• While I was worrying about her, one of the other colonies (Kosnica) swarmed on me. They were so sneaky in hiding their plans to swarm. Once it happened I was helpless as they were not taking any of my bait to get them to stay. 
• Several weeks later I am happy to say they were able to make a new queen.  While I was ever so patient (NOT) I made some markers for my hives to dress them up a little.  I found the new queen was laying and all was right in the world again. Well, as much as it could be given the circumstances. 

How's the honey? Sweet! But with all of this going on, it definitely puts a damper on the bees honey production. When there is no queen the bees do not bring in nectar which equals no new honey.  The only one of my hives who was not having a queen controversy this year was the hive which had the Russian line of honey bees (Panj). Russians do not make as much honey as Italians and that was evident when it came to harvest time. The only hives I was able to get honey from were Panj and Kosnica. I was able to collect a total of about 50 pounds of honey between the two.

We had a nice warm fall. Alveare was still small and not storing much. I was feeding them in hopes to help them to survive the long winter here. They gladly took the feed but instead of storing it, they kept growing the colony size. Alveare is only two boxes deep and does not have much honey stored for the long winter ahead. Those babies eat a lot. Only time will tell if they make it this winter.

This fall, my son really enjoyed coming up to help with feeding. This week was our last warm weather in the forecast.  We are due for a winter storm and the bees will not take sugar water when i'ts cold.  I had to take the feeder off Alveare and wrap all the hives for winter.

What is wrapping the hives?

Wrapping the hives is just one step you can take to help the honey bees survive our harsh northern climate. I had one winter wrap I used on Alveare (far left). This is a pre made cardboard wrap that is painted black on the outside. The other two were wrapped in roofing paper. This black exterior helps to heat up the hives in winter when the sun beats down on them. The trees and brush behind the hives aid in blocking the harsh northern winds in winter as well.

Are they completely closed? Nope. There are two doors for them to enter/exit all winter long. Honey bees do not relieve themselves in their house, so they need to get out when its time to go. I have one in the bottom of the hive and one on the top box of the hive for if the snow covers up the bottom entrance.

You can see Alveare (left) is shorter than the other hives. Hopefully we will have some warm days each month this winter so I can check on them and sneak in some emergency feed as needed. Panj (middle) had fairly good stores, the third box was not completely full so I will be checking in on them come January or February if we get some warm days.  Kosnica (right) had a full third deep box and although I will check on them in February if I am up there I am thinking they should have enough food to last them until March/April.

So as I was turning to leave, I tapped them on the top and said good luck girls! Its all up to you now!

That's the buzz!

Blessings!

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