As I start the third of a five-part Honey Bee series, I want to make sure you have read the first two articles as this is a chronological story. The first two articles and all my other articles can be found here.
After I had set up my hive, I judiciously checked it each week and made sure the queen was doing her job laying eggs and that the colony was finding all the resources it needed. I spent quite a bit of time reading articles and watching videos about beekeeping and what issues to look for and potential mistakes to try and sidestep. It was interesting to see so many theories on beekeeping.
After sifting through a few dozen of the thousands of options, I settled on a few relevant sources. There are many great resources to choose from, but here are a few I continue to use.
The University of Guelph Honey Bee Research Centre: https://honeybee.uoguelph.ca/
Barn Yard Bees: https://barnyardbees.com/
These three sources have helped me understand my bees and make their hive a better home for them. An issue arose in July of 2019 when my hive started swarming behavior. I hadn’t recognized the action before I went on a ten-day trip to the Rocky Mountains. When I came back, there was a massive swarm of bees as I drove up to my cabin driveway.
When I went to inspect my hive, there was a noticeable reduction in bees. All I could do was wait and hope the new young queen had successfully mated and would start laying eggs. Luckily two weeks later, I had a lot of fresh eggs in the hive.
Image by George Wimmer
Another issue I was concerned about is a bear finding my hive. We are in a heavily wooded area along a chain of lakes in a northern Wisconsin county full of bears. The black bear in the picture above is approximately 6ft tall standing on his hind legs. The 4×4 post is 6’3” above ground. This guy is delicately eating the dried fruit and nuts from my bird feeder. He is much more careful than the raccoons that often visit my feeders. I was standing about 10’ away from him on my deck, recording him and taking pictures.
Please don’t be as crazy as me and keep your distance from bears. I have been lucky that the bears have not gone after my hives. A popular solution is to put a high powered electric fence around hives to protect against a bear attack. I have not done this yet and have relied on strapping each hive shut to ensure that it would be a lot of work for the bear to open it. So far, so good, but I dread writing that sentence as I am tempting fate.
In the fall of 2019, I collected 18 more 16 oz jars of honey, bringing my total for the year to 23. The bees continued working to replenish their honey stores. As the temperatures dropped, I faced another critical decision, do I winterize my hive with winter covers or wraps. If a bee’s temperature falls to 40 degrees, they are unable to move. Inside the hive, during our cold winter months, the bees create a moving ball of protection around the queen. They use their body heat to keep her warm and safe.
They move from frame to frame, eating honey, and keeping the queen and brood warm. This bee cluster will contract when it gets colder and expand if there is a warm period during winter. The bees are so efficient that the temperature at the center of their cluster reaches 90 plus degrees Fahrenheit.
The main issue of creating all this heat is condensation. If water droplets start to form at the top of the hive and drop back down on the hive, there can be cascading of bee death and drops in temperature. The other main problem facing bees in winter are parasites and mice. A healthy colony throughout summer and fall can fall victim to pests. It is essential to check for these. I will cover this more in article five of our Honey Bee series. The other item is a cold mouse looking for a warm home; this problem is prevented with a secure entrance reducer.
Image by George Wimmer
I decided to make sure my entrance reducer was secure, and the hive is out of the wind. That was a mistake. I nearly lost my colony as the long cold winter cause a lot of condensation from the bees working hard to keep the hive warm. My queen did survive, but I lost so many bees. I was worried one more cold snap, and she would die. I was more lucky than smart in my first winter and will do much more to prepare my hives in 2020 for winter. I did leave more than enough honey as three full frames were still full of honey in the spring. That helped my hive bounce back quickly.
Article #4 covers my bee journey to date in 2020. Episode #43 of Wimmer’s Wilderness Podcast is dropped on July 17th and covers the National Debt, Farm Subsidies, Covid19, and Honey Bees. Help us spread the word by telling your friends, family, and heck even your frenemies that they can find us on iTunes, Spotify, Luminary, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, and Google Podcast, Tunein radio.
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