BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!

Dare I say Brrrrrr? I dare! But, I’m not complaining. The sun is shining and there’s a sharp chill in the air. Autumn has arrived and very beautiful it is too. Everywhere I look my eyes feast on the vast array of the wonderful muted tones of autumn leaves. And my bees… what of the bees? They’re still out foraging. As long as the temperature stays above 13º the honeybees will continue to forage, so planting bee friendly plants in your garden for the autumn months will help feed the bees as their food source become scarce. (See the end of the blog for the names of some bee friendly autumn plants).

This morning I went to the apiary to put on the ‘mouse guards’ and the girls were out enjoying the sunshine - busy as ever - no doubt preparing their hives for the cold months ahead.

The colonies in the hives are gradually starting to diminish in number.  They’ll be reducing from about 50,000 to about 5,000 per hive.  By the end of September the drones, (male bees), will have been thrown out. You can see the worker bees, (females), at the entrances of the hives dragging them out and preventing them from re-entering.  They’re not needed any more. Aside from mating in the spring, the drones make no contribution to a winter hive and would only eat the colonies valuable resources.  Harsh but true!  The last of the summer bees have reached the end of their 6 week lifespan and now the queen will stop laying, but before she does she lays the eggs that will become the winter bees.  These bees are fed less pollen than the summer bees which gives them fatter bodies and, because they do less work, they live for 5 or 6 months.  The winter bees will be keeping their colonies alive until the spring.

How do they do this? Honeybees don’t hibernate. They don’t sleep during the winter the way mammals do. A colony of honeybees ability to survive the winter depends on their food stores. If they run out of honey they will freeze to death. If they lose contact with their stores they will starve to death.

The workers form a cluster around the queen and a small amount of brood, on top of honey stores, with their heads pointing inwards. The bees in the centre of the cluster can move around freely feeding on the stores and looking after the queen and the brood. The bees on the outside cover their sisters on the inside. As the temperature in the hive rises they separate to allow the air to flow through and as the temperature falls they pull together and the cluster tightens.

The worker bees use their stores of honey to give them energy. They vibrate their wing muscles, without moving their wings which in turn raises their body temperature. With the volume of bees in the centre of the cluster all vibrating, the temperature can reach about 93º - when the bees on the outside start to get cold the bees on the inside exchange places with them. When they’ve finished the stores on the frame they’re on, if the temperature is warm enough, the entire cluster will move as one to find the next frame of stores and position themselves above the honey and so it goes on.

On a warm day, up at the apiary, you can see the bees coming in and out of their hives doing their housework. Hibernate? Not the honeybees, they just keep on keeping busy!

Autumn at the apiarie is a busy time for the beekeepers; preparing the bees for the winter months, making sure they have plenty of stores and are healthy is vitally important. We heft the hives, (test the weight by lifting them). In order for a hive to survive until spring each one should weigh a minimum of 401b’s (20 kg). If a hive is light we feed the bees with a sugar syrup solution which they will eagerly take down and turn in to honey. Some beekeepers leave a super full of honey underneath their hives, (or above), but I don’t. A super full of honey does not always guarantee the hive will survive the winter. If the temperature drops the bees will not move around the hive to find the stores, hence I mentioned above, if they get separated from their stores they can starve. Also, for me, the timing of removing the supers in the spring before the queen starts laying can be quite hard. I guess you can say I’m lazy, but that’s ok, each beekeeper has their own way of doing things!

We treat them, at this time of year, for verroa destuctor.  Simply put, Varroa is a parasite that attaches itself to the thorax of a honeybee, feeds off them and spreads viruses.  If a hive is not treated It can cause a whole colony to collapse and of course, it can spread to your other hives. Every hive has Varroa, scientists are actively looking for a cure but for now we have to settle for keeping it under control.

Reduced entrance

Preparing the actual hives for the cold weather is also important. 

The entrances are substantially reduced and then mouse guards put in front of them.  Mice love a beehive in the winter. They have the ability to collapse their rib cage and temporarily flatten themselves in order to squeeze through the narrowest of spaces. They creep under a cluster of bees and gorge on the wonderful stores without the honeybees noticing until, of course, they have nothing to feed on by which time it’s too late.

Hives are strapped down, not only does this protect them from strong winds but also any inquisitive badgers or deer who may sense something tasty inside and knock them over to reveal the contents.

Some beekeepers put insulation in the roofs of their hives, I cover my hives in a thermal outer casing which, on cold winter days, absorbs heat from the sun.

With all that said and done and winter on the way, the best thing we can do for the bees now is leave them alone and wait for spring! However, it’s still important to keep an eye on the hives without disturbing the bees, i.e., every couple of weeks heft them to make sure they have enough to eat and if it snows check to see the entrances aren’t blocked.

I cannot tell a lie, for all the moaning I do during the spring and summer months; namely… when I go to the apiary to do a simple hive check and end up spotting a swarm or finding queen cells, and what should take 30 minutes ends up taking 2 hours, I miss them during the autumn and winter!

I said at the beginning of the blog I went up this morning to put the mouse traps on, which is a 5 minute job but the sun was shining and the bees were as busy as ever so I sat for a good 30 minutes watching them and thanking them for all their hard work. Now I can’t blame the honeybees for that can I?

“The bee’s life is like a magic well: the more you draw from it, the more it fills with water.” (Karl Von Frisch).