opened hive late December

[hvac professor]

I have been getting advice from thomas and finski on a situation and thought i would throw it out to anyone who wanted to comment. I have learned a tremendous ammont from Beemasters Forum and appreciate the help, one day hope to give advice back.
It is very late December here in Norteastern New York near the vermont border, and over the summer my new bee hive grew to 5 10 frame deep boxes, during posts some veteran beeks were amazed. It took me until now as a new beek to figure out that the cause of this rapidly growing new hive was mostly from a mouse getting into lowest box and pushing bees upward.
A few days ago i removed the lower two boxes which had no honey or bees at all, and dropped the upper two. Since it is only in the mid 30 degree F range I did not want to remove top inner cover to look at storage.
I then took the 10 full frames of capped honey I had in the freezer and put that on top of the two boxes, it was suggested to me from a local beek that inner cover be removed and put on top of 10 frames of capped honey to prevent bees from getting trapped. This is what I did but now a bit concerned of all of the movement of a first year hive in late December (in northern climate) any comment on this would be greatly appreciated. It dropped to 10 degrees F last night

[tefer2]

Did you do anything to the hive for winter prep.? Insulation, tar paper!

[edward]

I hope the frozen honey you put on top of the hive was thawed out first.

[tefer2]

My thoughts are that moving components around this time of year breaks the seal of bee glue between the boxes. If I have to change things around in winter I try to do something to seal those cracks up.
If you have used something to surround the hive for winter, nothing needs to be done.

[Kathyp]

what you did is ok.  when you did it, not so much.  in the future, you probably want to get everything done by end October...depending on when it gets cold in your area.  here, i have pulled honey, rearranged the hives (crammed them together), and am out by the end of October at the latest because that's when it starts getting pretty cold at night and i want them sealed up for winter.  after that, i don't mess with them again except maybe to check dry sugar on top and then in Feb. if we get warm days to add pollen patties and recheck stores. 

[L Daxon]

Duct tape around the hive joints should help with the broken seal issue.

[backyard warrior]

i remember my first year i saw empty comb in the center of the hive i figured id move capped honey into the cluster for food  wrong answer beez couldnt cluster and the froze opps.

[Hethen57]

If you listen to Finski (which I do as well), I think he would tell you not to add all that empty space at this time of year.  That is alot of empty space in the hive for the bees to heat.  It is also probably too cold for them to move up to that empty honey super anyway. I tried the same thing in the past and the honey was still there after the cluster froze below it.  I would think it would be better to do it in Feb or Mar when you got a string of days with warmer weather, at least warm enough for cleansing flights and more movement within the hive.  Then they would have some food to get them through to Spring (which for us doesn't arrive until mid-May).  What I have done, which worked, was added 3-4 frames above the cluster with the rest of the hive body packed with insulation, and they were able to move up and use it.

[Finski]

Duct tape around the hive joints should help with the broken seal issue.

In all my hives resin sealing is broken because I trickle them in October. I can see a little heat leak in the gap because air flow makes condensation where it goes. In Spring I add weekly pollen patty. --- A little bit more ventilation.

Hive does not need tape. Sometimes a new cover is so slippy that it moves too easily away.

[Finski]

.
Winter is not any more very long. Here we may wait cleansing flights after 2 months. In that time the hive consumes 3-4 kg food. Full capped Langstroth has 2.5 kg food.

I just added a whole medium box capped honey to the hive. I heated it to room temperature before I put it over the cluster.

But making all the time something to the hive in winter, it will surely kill the hive. It must be in peace and in winter rest.

[T Beek]

Agreed; I usually start winter prep in late August, early September.  Removing boxes, condensing bees into as small a space as they can fill and making certain they have enough stores. 

In Northern Wisconsin, most of our August bees (if not all, but the queen) will be dead by Spring, when brood rearing is going gang busters.

During midwinter all I do is 'listen' w/ my stethoscope and/or add more dry sugar, and since I place sugar in a separate box above inner cover, little heat escapes (for an old guy I can still move pretty quick if neccessary :)).

thomas

[edward]

I wouldn't worry too much , here in Sweden we use poly hives , some beekeepers put two mach sticks between double boxes to create ventilation , haven dared too try myself.

The BIGEST truth we have is that cold climate does not kill bees , but damp will. If the bees get wet they will surely die.

There are pictures of a winter cluster taken out of a hive and hung in a apple tree for three days with only a piece of plastic roof in the winter with snow. After three days they put the hive back in its box. It lived and showed no signs of the unkindly treatment.

Badly insulated hives = consume more sugar

Badly ventilated hives = moldy dead hives

mvh edward

[Vance G]

My bees as of yesterday are dry as a bone and well supplied with commestables.   I worked them without smoke and quietly.  Only one hive decided to crawl into the neck on my coat and exibit displeasure, well several from that cluster did anyway.   It was 55 by the time I was done and the bees were all flying except a weak hive that already has a big dose of sugar and for better or worse are on their own.  Happy New Year to All.

[hvac professor]

i wrapped the hive with a bubble type insulation wrap but not sure how it will affect ventilation, there are 6 small holes at bottom entrance but difficult to tell how ventilation is working, after reading about cold not killing hives i wonder if i did the right thing, i guess time will tell

[caticind]

I finished packing the last hive down to winter spacing and adding dry sugar to those that were a little light - on Dec 23, when it was 18C/65F!   :shock:  One hive, from an April package, still had a full frame of capped brood and even eggs!  Luckily lots of stores also.  This week we're having our first real cold snap, with by far the coldest night of the 11-12 winter so far predicted for tonight - all of -7C/19F.  Supposed to have high daytime temps again this coming weekend.

We often have warm spells in winter, but this winter has been especially and continuously warm here in central NC.  This is good in that we have little fear of bees requiring massive amounts of stores to stay warm, but unfortunately they may eat through it in short order due to continuing brooding and activity.