How are your bees?

How are your bees?

At this time of the year, preparing bee hives for overwintering is on everyone’s mind. How is the strength of your colony? If your colony looks weak (bees active on five frames or less) and little food stores (honey and pollen), then you should be feeding your bees.

“Feed your bees in Autumn so the bees can get through Winter and reward you in Spring.”

Pack Down for Winter?

A practical way to assist your bees in overwintering is to reduce the space they have to keep warm. Remove surplus honey supers now. One brood box full of bees will do better than the bees spread out in two boxes.

What do I do with surplus frames?

They need to be treated and stored to prevent wax moth infestation. Freeze frames for two days to kill wax moth eggs. They can be left in the freezer or stored in insect-proof containers. If stored in a container, check every month over Winter. If there is a new outbreak of wax moth, refreeze.