Winterizing your bees the natural way.

Reader Contribution by Staff

It’s that time of year to think about putting our summertime pleasures to bed.  At our house, we just finished carpeting our entire front lawn with a deep mulch of spoiled hay.  This is the first step to converting our lawn to food production.

What do we need to do for the bees? 

Many of you already know, bees do not hibernate or sleep in the winter. They form a cluster and generate heat. They maintain 96 degrees in the middle of the cluster all winter long. The process of warm air emanating from the cluster making contact with the cold flat surface above the cluster results in moisture build up or condensation, much like the water that forms on a cold glass and runs down to make a ring on your mother-in-law’s antique end table.  Standing water is never a good scenario, whether it is in a beehive or an antique end table.

At our local bee clubs, we are usually taught to give the bees ventilation on the top of the hive as well as the bottom entrance. This is to prevent humidity from building up on the ceiling of the hive only to drip into the cluster to freeze them.  However, this extra ventilation is problematic because the air draft requires more energy from the clustered bees to maintain the 96 degrees and 50% humidity.  Simply put, they have to eat more of their food storage than necessary.

Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368