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bees should be moving more into winter stages now. You’ll notice fewer flights. The queen should be slowing down on laying eggs.

As the beekeeper, prepare your hive for winter. build a windbreak if your hive is in the open. A large strong hive will cluster, creating a large ball of bees to keep them all alive. A hive with fewer bees will have a hard time surviving the winter. Moisture can be an issue in the hive. Make sure the hive can ventilate moisture well. Put a small incline/tilt on your hive to encourage any internal moisture to run down the side of the hive rather than drip on top of the bee cluster causing them to freeze. You don’t want your bees wet and cold. Leave your screened bottom board open to allow enough ventilation to happen and reduce moisture. Don’t create any gaps in the upper cover. Don’t wrap your hive for winter, you will increase the chances of condensation. Place a heavy block on your hive lid as you don’t want any chance of it coming off in a harsh winter storm.

Entrance reducer and protection from Winter winds should be in place.  Wind blocks should be placed about 3 ft from the hive. Tilt hive to ensure drainage of excess moisture and to check weight. If stores are light, add some feed, usually fondant

Not much going on outside unless you have some unusually warm days for them to leave the hive for cleansing. Otherwise, your bees are most likely all clustered up and staying warm. If the days are warmer, they may break from the cluster and forage for some of their honey stores and do cleansing flights. Then recluster at night when temperatures fall.

The bees are still just clustering in their hive keeping warm. Only breaking away from the cluster during the warmer days and then reclustering. December is pretty much the same as November. On warmer days after fresh snows. Don’t be alarmed if you see large numbers of dead bees just outside the hive. They’re just cleaning out the hive and doing cleansing flights.

as the beekeeper, you may want to start planning your spring. Are you going to need to order bees? what hardware do you need to add for new hives and or for repairs of existing hives. Be prepared to place your order in January so that you get timely delivery of all you need.

Time to order your woodenware!

Your bees are most likely all surrounding the queen in a large cluster within the hive. There should be very little activity observed from your hive. except for on our nice warm days we tend to have here. When the outside temperature gets above 40-50 degrees, you should see workers taking the opportunity to get out of the hive. Making cleansing flights for the most part. There are no drones in the hive at this time. The bees would be feeding from their honey stores. so hopefully you left them some of their summer forage to dine on.  The bees do have longer life spans in the winter months. You will still have bee deaths though throughout the winter. On these warmer days, you may see a large number of dead bees outside the hive. This is part of the hive cleanup. Since the dead bees ball to the bottom of the hive, the worker bees will take this warm weather advantage to clean out the dead bees.

As the beekeeper, what should you be doing? Make sure your hive is still in good order,  the lids are on and not detached, and the openings are clear of snow so that the hive can continue to be well-ventilated.  If you left or observed large honey stores in the fall. You should be fine at this time. Although you may need to ’emergency feed’ your bees if it has been unusually warm. You may need to feed the beeswith fondant or sugar water. But otherwise, this is a great time of year to work on honey super repair, order your bees, and new hardware for new hives or expansion. You should not have to spend any time at all with your bees in January other than observing your hive.

Bee Order

Your queen should still be tucked away in the cluster of bees. There are still no drones in the hive at this time. cleansing flights will be seen more often as you may start to see more warm days happening. but the hive is still very much in winter mode. The queen and hive will start to notice the longer days and she will begin to lay more eggs daily.

As the beekeeper, you should be doing pretty much what you did in January. Do not be getting into your hive unless it is at least 50 degrees or warmer, and be in there briefly. do not remove frames or anything that may send a chill down into the hive. You should only be checking to see if their honey stores are still available. if not, you may want to ’emergency feed’.  Some beekeepers may keep honey frames in their freezer or storage and replace empty honey frames with frames full of honey from the fall harvest. This is the best way to feed your bees. Other options would be pollen patties or sugar water. But keep an eye on that temperature. This is a must-have to-do month for ordering your bees and hardware. do this now if you want it to arrive in time for spring.