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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!