Door County Beekeepers Club

The Bees – The bees are in a tight cluster. No peeking.
The Beekeeper – There’s nothing you can do with the bees, except clear out the entrance of dead bees. Read a good book on beekeeping, and enjoy the holidays!

It is the time of year to prep your hive for the winter months ahead. Your goal is to raise fat bees that will overwinter in the hive for the next 5-6 months. There is interesting reading on the web about vitellogenin and overwintering bees.

Harvest honey at the end of August, first of September and remove queen excluder.

Varroa mite treatment program. Check your hive for mite levels and if you find you have no mites then check again! Go to DATCP Varroa mite treatment and see the recommended options for mite control in Wisconsin (https://datcp.wi.gov/Documents/TreatmentOptions.pdf). After you have finished your mite treatment protocol, you may want to check for mites again just to be sure your mite treatment worked — brood timing can be a glitch and resistance exists!

Check your hive for pollen supplies. If you don’t see much pollen, you might want to add a pollen substitute for the bees. Check out the pollen substitute article by Randy Oliver (https://scientificbeekeeping.com/a-comparative-test-of-the-pollen-sub/). If you are going to feed pollen patties, use winter pollen patties.

Feed the bees heavy syrup to assure that they have enough food to get them through the winter months.

Decide if you are going to wrap your hives in a cozy or cover it with a pillow or a 2 inch polystyrene hat.

Last, but not least, be sure to put on a mouse excluder just before the first frost; be sure to check that you have not enclosed a mouse family inside the hive (been there and done that).

See you at the meeting September 20th.

Good nutrition for your hives will be naturally a challenge with the irregular spring weather (rain, wind and cold). If there’s no food available to your hives; feed, feed, and feed some more! If you think there might be a tiny shortage, feed as early as you can and check for carbs and protein. A protein patty (or frame of pollen) now is the cheapest insurance you can buy. For carbs, try a sugar board, (or frames of honey). Easy to feed and easy to eat. Feeding syrup or sugar boards will stimulate your bees and encourage them to eat. Continue feeding until they no longer take your offering.
Weather permitting, comprehensive inspection and spring-cleaning time is here. Reverse the brood supers, unless the colony and brood are strong (covering both boxes). In this case, you should probably not reverse boxes (as this will split the brood area). You should, however, clean the bottom board whether you reverse boxes or not.
Note: Depending on the weather all of the above may need to be delayed until early May.
Later in the month, check your hives on a warm day for brood pattern, signs of diseases and overall health. If diseases or parasites are found, take necessary action to treat using whatever methods you are comfortable with.

Spring is an important time of the year for you to monitor hive activity and insure that your bees complete their winter survival. As temperatures begin to warm towards 40 degrees, you will see the bees exiting the hive to make cleansing flights. Significant amounts of orange dots on the snow indicate successful flights. Take a peak under the cover to see that the cluster is still active, and food stores are ample. March is typically a month when food stores are depleted and the bees suffer. If you’ve been supplementing with hard candy or sugar, make sure there are still ample amounts. Later in the month, pollen supplement patties will be a good idea to stimulate the queen.

The Bees: The queen is surrounded by thousand of her workers. She is in the midst of their winter cluster. There is little activity except on a warm day (about 45-50 degrees) when the workers will take the opportunity to make cleansing flights. The bees will consume about 25 pounds of stored honey this month.
The Beekeeper: Little work is required from you in the hives. If there is heavy snow, clear entrance for proper ventilation. This is a great time to catch up on your bee reading, and build/repair equipment for next season.

BeeKeepers Year: January (from Minnesota BeeKeepers Assoc.)

The Bees: The queen is surrounded by thousand of her workers. She is in the midst of their winter cluster. There is little activity except on a warm day (about 45-50 degrees) when the workers will take the opportunity to make cleansing flights. The bees will consume about 25 pounds of stored honey this month.

The Beekeeper: Little work is required from you at the hives. If there is heavy snow, clear entrance for proper ventilation. This is a great time to catch up on your bee reading, and build/repair equipment for next season.

BeeKeepers Year: December
The Bees – The bees are in a tight cluster. No peeking.
The Beekeeper – There’s nothing you can do with the bees, except clear out the entrance of dead bees. Read a good book on beekeeping, and enjoy the holidays!