The bees swarm carefully over winter
Changzhou Ziying Metal Products Co., Ltd , https://www.ziyingmetal.com
In autumn, it's crucial to properly manage the bee colony and adjust its potential in a timely manner to ensure a strong foundation for winter survival and productivity in the following year.
1. **Prepare the hive for winter bees**. During this period, it's important to focus on brood rearing. Make sure all full honeycombs and empty frames are either placed back into the hive or stored in a box. Gradually consolidate the combs within the hive, placing smaller areas on both sides and larger ones in the center. Each comb should have approximately 500 grams of honey. Avoid having any empty frames inside the hive, and do not add new ones unless necessary. Keep the space between bees at around 9–10 mm so that the hive remains compact, allowing the bees to continue raising winter bees on the existing combs.
2. **Remove full honeycombs promptly**. Once the last nectar flow has ended, the queen may still lay eggs, but these eggs won’t develop into winter bees. To prevent this, take action to increase the number of worker bees and lower the hive temperature. Perform this task when there’s no brood present to avoid harming the bees. You can also use a queen cage with an open mesh to keep the queen isolated while allowing workers to interact with her freely. This helps control temperature and prevents overcrowding. Arrange the honey and combs in the hive, ensuring there are slightly more bees than combs. If there are no capped combs, use empty or partially filled ones instead, replacing those with pollen or no pollen. These will be removed in early spring and then added back to the colony.
3. **Stock up on winter food and boost the colony's strength**. Usually, mature honey or pure white sugar is used as winter feed. For a strong colony of 4–5 boxes, 10–13 kg of honey is sufficient, while weaker colonies need more to strengthen their population. When using honey, mix 50 kg of honey with 3–4 kg of water and heat it to 70°C for 30 minutes to dissolve and crystallize it. Ensure the honey is clean and free from oil or other contaminants. If using sugar, mix 50 grams of sugar with 28–33 kg of water, bring the water to a boil, then add the sugar. Heat until fully dissolved, cool, and then feed. Feed in short sessions to avoid triggering the queen to lay eggs.
4. **Ensure proper hive organization for wintering**. Maintain a balance between the number of bees and the available combs. Avoid large disparities, as this can cause overheating or excessive consumption of stores. Outdoors, it’s acceptable to have slightly more bees than combs—4–5 boxes of bees with 4 combs to adapt to weather changes. Seal the honey combs on both sides of the hive, place the middle area with less capped honey, and fill the center with empty brood chambers. This encourages clustering and reduces fermentation of uncapped honey. Place a baffle around the arranged combs, cover with a cloth, and add extra paper layers to block cold air. In late autumn, reduce bee activity to conserve energy and maintain a strong overwintering population.