Preparing bee colonies for winter. Wintering of bees

During the winter cold, the bee colony is completely dependent on the literacy and extensive knowledge of the beekeeper. Preparing bees for winter allows not only to preserve the viability of the colony in the next season, but also to ensure an abundant honey harvest for the next year.

Security optimal conditions for wintering consists of many factors, one of which is temperature. The periods when bees enter a state of reduced activity vary depending on the region. If for most northern regions and central Russia this is the end of October - beginning of November, then for the southern regions post-Soviet space– at least a month later. Accordingly, wintering periods are reduced from 5-6 months. up to 2-3.

However, the start of preparatory work must be combined, according to professionals, with the end of the main bribe. It is during this period that a preliminary examination can show what reserves the family will go into winter with, what numbers it needs to increase, and also what degree of intensity the queen has shown during the season.

To successfully conduct the cold period, the beekeeper must pay attention to several important points:

• Breeding breeds that are maximally adapted to local climatic conditions;
• Ensuring sufficient food supplies for the winter;
• Correct assembly of the nest (if necessary, unification of weak families);
• Autumn preventive treatment against ticks;
• Creating optimal conditions of temperature and humidity.

Important! Strong families with a club weight of at least 2.5 kg and above tolerate wintering well (for northern regions) or at least 2 kg (for southern regions). For an average family, you need 8-9 printed frames with honey, 1-2 of which will also contain beebread - food for spring brood.

Preparing for wintering bees: food supplies | Video

Among beekeepers there are many defenders and opponents of feeding with sugar. Opponents of this measure cite several arguments, the main one of which is the poor quality of the resulting honey. However, given the lack of quality food for the winter period, supporters of sugar feeding provide more compelling arguments:

• Feed replacement occurs only partially, with syrup being the last to be processed and therefore eaten by the bees first. Thus, it cannot get into commercial honey;
• In the absence of sugar feeding, there is a high probability of the presence of a high percentage of honeydew and dark, quickly crystallizing varieties of honey in the feed. In this case, the bees may get sick and not survive until spring;
• If feeding is carried out with inverted syrup, then a minimum of vital energy is spent on its processing, since the sugars there are already in a split state;
• And the last argument in favor of sugar feeding is the minimal amount of microelements in it, due to which the bee’s intestines fill more slowly. Consequently, wintering is calmer - insects do not tend to fly out earlier.

Important! The timing of autumn feeding should be calculated individually by each beekeeper, taking into account the time required for the bees to hatch the last brood. For middle zone this is approximately the end of August - beginning of September. An average family is fed up to 8 kg of sugar in syrup with a concentration of 60-70%. For weak families, the norm is halved. If the last brood emerges, then after a few days (4-5) artificial feeding is stopped - this contributes to less wear and tear on the young bees and, accordingly, increases the strength of the colony.

Preparing the hive for winter: assembling the nest | Video

For the winter period, only completely sealed frames with food (or at least 2/3) are left. The collection is carried out not at once, but over several inspections, since frames with brood may still be present, which are later filled with food.

All empty and not completely filled combs are removed, reducing the number of frames as much as possible and leaving only completely occupied frames.

All pre-selected frames with food are placed in in a certain order, and the main thing is that the hive entrance should be located in the center of the nest. There are two types of nest assembly: when inserting warmly, the frames are placed parallel to the tap hole, and when inserting coldly, perpendicularly. In practice, methods of placing honey during cold drift are almost always used:

• Double sided assembly: Frames with the smallest filling are placed in the center - about 2 kg each, increasing the amount of food in the frame towards the edges to 2.5 kg, then 3 and 3.5 kg. Thus, from the entrance to the walls of the hive, the fullness of the combs increases;
• One-sided assembly. Arrange the frames in the following order: 3 kg, 1.5 kg, 3 x 2 kg, 2.5 kg, 2 x 3 kg. The weakest frame (1.5 kg) is placed opposite the tap hole;
• Assembly with a beard. This is carried out if for some reason the feed supply is minimal. The most filled frames are placed in the center, and placed towards the edges so that their fullness decreases. In this case, there is a risk of the club splitting due to lack of food and, as a result, the death of the bees.

Important! The same danger lurks if a frame with beebread, where there is little honey, falls in the center of the nest. Therefore, she (or they) are placed second from the edge. Full copper frames in the center of the socket pose the same danger.

If there is brood when assembling the nest, these frames are left in the hive and removed only after the young bees emerge. If the family is strong, the brood may end up on several frames due to a lack of food supplies. In this case, a honey magazine extension is installed, ensuring good winter family.

For double-hull hives, the problem of nest assembly is less urgent - in this case, if there is a lack of food, frames with honey are placed in the upper body. If necessary, frames are moved from the lower body to the upper one or replenished from previously made stocks.

Reducing heat loss during cold weather can save a lot of feed, and, therefore, increase the chances of a family’s safe exit from wintering. Therefore, most beekeepers devote a lot of time and effort to insulating their bee houses.

If the hive is located in a place protected from the winds and is made to last (without cracks and holes), and the beekeeper winter period took care of the maximum reduction of the entrances and a warm roof, then special insulation measures will not be required. A good strong family with a sufficient amount of high-quality feed can maintain its viability without additional heating. Of course, in the absence of severe frosts.

Most people prefer to carry out external insulation, correctly believing that the use of special insulating materials inside can disrupt the humidity. And, as you know, it is no less important (and sometimes more) than the temperature regime, especially when wintering indoors.

High humidity during winter can cause many negative phenomena:

• Liquefaction of honey, its fermentation and flow out of the cells;
• Dampness and moisture condensation on the roof of the hive;
• Moisture flows down and the insects get wet, causing them to freeze and die.

If bees begin to eat fermented honey, they will begin to vilify, and this is a direct path to the death of the family. Therefore, good ventilation is much more important than insulation. Although insulation at least on the roof is recognized by all beekeepers. Some also insulate the bottom. A variety of materials can be used for this:

• Styrofoam;
• Fibrous materials;
• Polyethylene.

However, they all have reduced hygroscopicity. Therefore, many experienced beekeepers prefer available products of natural origin: straw mats, pillows made of dry leaves and grass, fir branches. And in northern regions Thick snow cover provides good protection.

Wintering bees outside | Video

For the southern regions, there is no doubt about the preference of leaving hives in the wild during cold weather. However, in the northern regions there are severe frosts, on the eve of which many beekeepers prefer to cover their hives indoors.

Despite this, there are many more supporters of bees wintering in the wild, since such conditions are as close as possible to natural ones. And, therefore, bees still tolerate them better. You just need to help them a little:

• Conduct preventive treatments and fertilizing in a timely manner;
• Take care of the strength of families, and if necessary, form a hive of 2-3 weak families;
• Change the uterus if it is already old;
• Create conditions for a quiet stay of bees in the hives, protect them from external irritants.

Before the onset of cold weather, it is necessary to inspect the house for its integrity, as well as protection from rodents and pests. For this purpose, special gratings are placed on the entrance and under the cover.

If you decide to insulate the house with snow, do not allow it to come into contact with the walls, otherwise in sunny weather it may melt and penetrate the hive.

If you are fully confident that all conditions for a good wintering have been met, there is no need to inspect the hives - this will only disturb the families. However, an external bypass won't hurt. Wherein:

• Arrange the houses so that you can go around without unnecessary noise;
• If you want to remove the cover, you should do this extremely carefully, without knocking or clanking;
• Carry out inspections in cloudy weather - this way you will disturb the bees less.

Important! When you visit the hive, you hear a quiet, even hum - this means that everything is in order in the family, and an inspection is not needed.

When choosing a wintering method, you should weigh the pros and cons.

Advantages wintering outside:

• There are no costs for the construction and maintenance of a winter hut;
• Involvement of third party is excluded work force for moving hives;
• With strong fluctuations in t, a cleansing flyby is possible;
• Early colony development: queen scarring, hive cleaning, early flight.

Flaws:

• More feed is needed;
• Providing additional protection from winds and tits;
• Removing snow drifts that may interfere with the cleaning flight;
• Impossibility of wintering weak families.

With almost equal disadvantages and advantages, wintering in the wild contributes to a good growth of families and, consequently, to the development of an apiary and making a good profit.

Important! If feed deficiencies are detected before spring, experienced beekeepers carry out additional feeding at the end of February. A piece of fabric with honey poured onto it, previously dissolved in the warmth, is placed on the grid in the ceiling board. After this, they are covered with film so as not to stain the insulation. Such feeding is carried out several times, 150-200 g per family.

To prevent the bees from flying out and dying in sunny (but frosty) weather, the front wall of the hive must be shaded with a straw shield. And to protect against tits, they place blocks in front of the entrances, leaving a small (for 1 bee) passage. A good distraction is to build bird feeders.

An experienced beekeeper has already derived from his own experience the main rules for preparing bees for wintering. However, novice beekeepers may not take into account some circumstance that will cost the life of the bee colony.

Their main mistakes are:

• Pumping out all the honey. A family cannot fully develop on syrup alone. Honey is especially needed in the spring, when the first brood is hatched;
• Overfeeding with syrup. This circumstance follows from the first mistake. In an effort to compensate for the lack of food, bees intensively process syrup, which leads to their exhaustion;
• Inaccurate feeding. Syrup spilled around the hive and on it provokes theft and even a bee war, in which many bees die;
• Late feeding. If reserves have already been made, young bees are preparing for winter, then feeding only depletes their fat body, and they go into winter weakened;
• Lack of bee bread. When the spring brood emerges, there will be nothing to feed it;
• Leaving light honeycombs. Brood did not hatch in such combs, and they do not hold heat well. Bees freeze on such honeycombs and consume a lot of food;
• Early insulation. It can provoke incorrect formation of the club, as a result of which the bees will freeze;
• Incorrect position of the hive. The bee house should be slightly tilted forward to prevent moisture from flowing into the entrance and the formation of dampness inside.

Preparation of bees for wintering should be carried out during the entire period from the end of the main harvest to the onset of cold weather. Then you can take into account all the important points and provide families good conditions in winter and early development in the spring.

Wintering bees is the most important and difficult period in their lives. It is especially difficult in the Northwestern zone, where the fly-free period lasts 6.5-7 months. During this time, about 200 days, the bees sit in the hive without defecating from the last autumn flight to the first spring flight.

To prepare bees for wintering, it is necessary to provide everything in advance, because in winter time It is impossible to correct deficiencies without serious damage to the health of the bees, since during this period they are in a state of rest. Any anxiety leads to the consumption of excessive amounts of feed and an increase in fecal load.

The last autumn migration of bees occurs around September 20. By this time, it is necessary to finish preparing the bees for winter, and give the bees themselves the opportunity to prepare for winter.

In some years, the weather allows the bees to make their last flight after September 20, but you still shouldn’t count on this.

Supplying bees with food for the winter. One of the main concerns of a beekeeper when preparing bees for wintering is to provide the bees with good quality food in sufficient quantity for the winter. Beekeepers know well that it is impossible to feed bees during wintering without harm to them, therefore the entire amount of food needed for the winter and the first days of spring must be placed in the hives in the North-West zone no later than September 20. If the bee colony, when checked in the first ten days of August, turns out to have little food, it becomes necessary to replenish it with sugar. It is fed on August 12-25. Not all honey is suitable for winter consumption by bees. Honeydew honey causes bees to become sick with diarrhea and die, while heather honey hardens and becomes inaccessible to wintering bees.

In the North-West zone, bees bring honeydew honey mainly in the second half of July and in the first half of August, often simultaneously with flower honey, that is, mixed, and heather honey - from the beginning to mid-August. To prevent honeydew and heather honey from getting into the winter food, at the end of June or in the first half of July - during a good honey harvest - frames are selected, each of which contains at least 2 kg of honey. Such frames are kept in reserve and placed in the hives for the winter on September 10-20, at the last inspection. It is very good if all food for the winter consists of such early harvested honey.

Calculation of the amount of food when preparing bees for wintering. Suppose that an inspection of a bee colony on August 5-10 determined the presence of fodder honey in the hive in frames that will remain for the winter - 12 kg. The frames, which at this time are occupied by brood and only have a little honey at the top bars, will have to be removed later, when the brood comes out, since they will be empty in the center of the nest. You will also have to remove the low-copper frames. In total there should be 20 kg in winter. This family needs to add 8 kg. On September 10-20, you can give 3 frames (total 8-9 kg) with honey from the reserve.

If in the above example 8 kg must be completely or partially replaced with sugar, then the bees are given thick syrup (2 kg of sugar per 1.2 kg of water) between August 10-25. They feed more syrup than calculated, because the bees spend 15% of the feed on processing sugar into feed; the bees will put part of the feed in those frames that will not remain in the winter, and will also be used to feed the brood that is available at that time. This means that in order to replenish 8 kg of sugar in the hive for the winter, you need to feed 10-11 kg of it to the bees.

When feeding bees sugar to supplement their winter food, you must keep in mind that in the conditions of the North-West, it is not recommended to feed bees after September 1, because the bees will not be able to process and seal this food, and if it is not sealed, it may turn sour. Consumption of poor-quality food in winter causes diarrhea in bees and, as a result, mass death. In addition, late feeding stimulates the queen to lay eggs, and the colony goes into the winter unprepared. This is especially noticeable in queens of the current year of birth.

At the end of July and August, during the period of preparation of bees for wintering, the beekeeper must observe what plants his bees work on, what kind of nectar they collect and what kind of honey will be in the hives. If, for example, there is a lot of heather growing within the bees’ working radius, then they will produce heather honey. It has a light reddish-brown color and is difficult to pump out in a honey extractor due to its high viscosity. Bees often bring honeydew honey. The beekeeper must also monitor the appearance of honeydew honey. Fortunately, in the North-West zone it occurs infrequently and in small quantities, moreover, at a time when its admixture ends up in commercial honey. For precise definition The presence of honeydew in the winter food of bees is analyzed in a laboratory.

When inspecting the hives, August 5-10, after drying the stores and honey buildings, the frames with honeydew and heather honey are removed. Instead, they are replaced by low-copper frames with good honey, which is contained in them at the top bar in small quantity. In the absence of full honey frames, instead of them in August, the bees are given sugar syrup, from which the bees prepare good food for themselves. They willingly process it and put it in honeycombs, and in winter they consume it first. Sugar food, which contains 5-6 kg of sugar, is enough for the bee family until the end of January, after which they feed on natural honey. Sugar is used earlier than honey, because it is later folded into the comb and is located at the bottom of the frame, from where the bees always begin to consume food, gradually moving upward.

Since the consumption of sugar food by bees in winter does not create a large fecal load for them, honey in the future, even with a small admixture of honeydew, does not have a harmful effect on them. In the second half of wintering and at the end of it, bees use natural flower honey, which has a beneficial effect on the development of the brood. To replenish the winter supply of food, sugar is given to the bees in the form of syrup in the second half of August in large portions - 3-4 liters at a time up to a certain amount. The syrup is prepared in the proportion of 2 kg of sugar and 1.2 kg of water. A measured amount of water is heated to a boil. Place a pre-weighed amount of sugar into boiling water without removing it from the heat and stir it with a wooden spatula until completely dissolved. Sugar usually dissolves in water before the syrup boils. Without bringing to a boil, remove the syrup from the heat. The finished syrup is cooled to 34-35°C and poured into feeders.

Instead of sugar syrup, bees can be fed a solution of natural honey obtained from known healthy bees, preferably from your own bees. It is not recommended to use chalk from unknown bees (purchased) as food to avoid infection.

Honey for feeding bees, dissolved in water, is called honey full. For stimulating feeding in spring and autumn, honey feed is prepared from 1 part honey and 1 part water, and to replenish feed reserves - from 1 part honey and 1/4 water by weight.

The last autumn inspection of bees when preparing bees for wintering. During the period from September 10 to September 20, in good weather, in the afternoon, last time During the season, bee colonies are inspected. This period for the last autumn inspection is convenient because the bees weather conditions They still have the opportunity to put their nest in order after the intervention (inspection) of the beekeeper and make a cleansing flight. In the North-West zone it often happens good weather, convenient for the last inspection and cleaning flight even in the first half of October. However, relying on this and postponing the final inspection to a later date is risky. Upon inspection, the nests of bee colonies are finally collected for the winter. The frames in which the brood came out of the eggs laid by the queen in August, have now become low-copper, are removed and instead of them, frames with sealed honey are placed in the hives from the stock, selected for this task during the main honey harvest (if such frames are stored), as well as full-copper, withdrawn on August 5-10 for the period of feeding. If there are any extra copper frames in a given family, they are taken out and placed in the nests of those families where there is not enough food for the winter. This is how feed supplies are leveled. During the last inspection in the fall, you need to make sure that each colony has as many frames as there are bees brooding on them. On average, each frame should contain at least 2 kg of feed. You can leave 2-3 frames in the nest, each containing 1.5 kg of food, but interspersed with others containing at least 2.5 kg of food. With such a supply of food, the beekeeper can be sure that there will be enough food not only for the winter, but also for the first days of spring after the spring flight. For the winter, beebread is left in the nests in the smallest quantities possible. It should be borne in mind that beebread filled with honey and sealed cannot always be distinguished from sealed honey with a quick inspection and autumn lighting. Therefore, some amount of bee bread always ends up in the winter feed. Consumption of bee bread in winter increases the fecal load. In conditions of long wintering in the North-West zone, this may cause diarrhea in bees. When wintering without beebread, the colony has no brood until spring flight. The bees do not wear out feeding it, and placing frames with beebread in the nest on the day the bees fly around contributes to a good and rapid increase in the strength of the colony in the spring.

In practice, beekeepers leave one frame full of beebread or two half-filled with it for the winter, and place them not in the middle, but second from the edge of the nest. This ensures protein nutrition of bees in winter and increases their number from early spring. At the same time, the wintering of bees is going well. Sometimes you have to equip the nest with frames containing less than 2 kg of food. In this case, the beekeeper is forced to leave more frames in the colony for the winter than are occupied by bees. For example, bees occupy 9 frames, and food is placed in 11 frames. Bees of such a colony will have to switch to other frames for feeding in winter. To make this transition easier for them, an over-frame space 10 mm high is created above the upper bars of the nest frames. To do this, a shield is placed on top of the frames when cleaning bees into the winter hut - a piece of plywood measuring 200 X 250 mm, along the edges of which slats with a cross section of 10 X 10 mm are nailed from below.

A family that has more frames left in its nest for the winter than the bees can feed on them may find itself in a difficult situation if the club settles in the middle of the nest in the fall. Then, having used up the food on the frames where wintering began, the bees will move to one side of the nest to neighboring frames, and the food located in the other side will be completely inaccessible to them. In this case, the bee colony may die of starvation even if there is food in the hive.

To prevent this phenomenon, it is necessary to create conditions conducive to placing the club of bees not in the middle of the nest, but at its beginning, that is, on its right side, which faces southwest, if the hive faces southeast (the right side of the hive often called warm because it is warmed up by the sun better than others). To do this, from the moment the honey collection ends, the hole in the taphole is gradually reduced from the left side to the right. For the winter, the entrance is left open on the right side. The bees place their brood and winter club opposite the entrance. With this position of the entrance, the club of bees at the beginning of winter will be located at the right edge of the nest - at the right wall of the hive. As the feed is consumed, the club will move to the next frames towards the left wall. The entire supply of food will be available to the bees, and they will winter well.

Excess frames with food that are not occupied by bees are not left in the hive for the winter because, under the influence of moisture evaporation from a cloud of bees, they sweat and become moldy, and the honey in them often becomes moistened and sour. In addition, such frames, occupying part of the nest in winter, cool it and accumulate dampness, which has a harmful effect on the wintering of bees. Excess frames with food are stored as an “insurance fund” (it will be needed after the bee exhibition in the spring) in a warehouse, in a honeycomb storage facility or in spare hives in a dry, ventilated area.

Preparing the winter shelter. After the bees are removed from the winter hut in the spring, the room is cleaned. The corpses of bees and debris from the floor and shelving are swept away, removed and burned or buried in the ground. The premises and shelving are being renovated. Then, no later than the beginning of July, the walls, ceiling and shelving are disinfected and whitewashed with a solution of freshly slaked lime, and the floor is sprayed with it. During the summer, the winter hut is dried and ventilated, for which a lattice door is made, and a barred window is made in the upper opposite wall. The supply and exhaust ventilation is completely open throughout the summer. In the conditions of the North-Western zone, bees in the winter hut often suffer from dampness and excess air humidity, so the room needs to be dried and ventilated as best as possible.

Cleaning bees for the winter hut. All work to prepare bees for wintering is completed no later than September 20. From this time until the hives are cleared into the winter hut, no work is carried out with the bees. They are at rest and disturbing them is very harmful. The hives should be located in close proximity to the winter hut so that they can be quickly and carefully moved indoors when necessary. Great harm is caused to bees when transporting hives by transport, even over a short distance.

The bees must be transported to the winter hut no later than September 10, that is, before the last autumn flight. The bees are harvested for the winter hut on November 10-15, with the onset of a steady cold snap. In large apiaries, where winter huts accommodate several hundred bee colonies, it is impossible to do without transporting the bees indoors, and in the spring back to freedom. In this case, the bees are transported on a tractor sleigh with a low and narrow platform so that they can enter the winter hut. It must be assumed that such transportation is permissible over short distances - up to 1000 m. It is very undesirable to transport bees by car at this time.

2-3 days before cleaning the hives for the winter hives, replace the polished canvases with clean ones, through which in winter it will be better for the air exhaled by the bees and saturated with moisture to pass through. At the same time, plywood panels with slats are placed on the upper bars of the frames under the canvas. The work of replacing canvases and laying shields is done quickly, without the use of smoke, so that the bees do not even notice it. Carefully remove the roof and insulation of the hive, then, taking the canvas by two corners from the ends of the frames, quickly remove it with your hands. A plywood shield is immediately placed on the exposed frames, and a clean canvas, insulation is placed on it and the hive is closed.

With the decrease and cessation of honey flow, the number of entrances in the hives by this time has been reduced. First of all, the upper entrances are already completely closed. The lower entrance is covered gradually and until the hive is removed to the winter hut, it is left open at its right wall to a width of 35-5 0 mm (in a family of normal strength).

The hives with bees are carefully transferred into the properly prepared winter hut, without pushing or knocking. All work on carrying and installing the hives is done in one day and as quickly as possible, so as to reduce the amount of time disturbing the bees. Before moving the hive to the winter hut, the entrance is closed, and when the bees disturbed by the transfer calm down, it is opened. First of all, the hives with cores and layers are transferred to the winter hut and placed on the upper racks. Why fill the middle and lower racks with hives? The hives should be located in the winter hut so that during the winter you can easily approach anyone and even, if necessary, remove some of them without disturbing the bees in nearby hives.

After all the hives have been installed in the winter hut and the bees in them have calmed down somewhat, check to see if there are any closed entrances left. The position of the entrances in the winter hut largely depends on the temperature maintained in the room and the method of wintering the bees. In a normal, well-equipped winter hut, the optimal temperature is maintained. The best temperature is considered to be from 0 to 2°C; good - from -5 to 4°C, with a decrease in especially cold periods in winter to -20°C; bad, in which the bees suffer from dampness, is above 7°C. It should be remembered that a temperature in the winter hut of 8°C is much worse for wintering bees than -30°C. Poor ventilation and dampness in the winter hut are the worst enemies of bees. If the temperature in the winter hut is kept from 1 to 4 ° C, then the entrances can be kept from the beginning of wintering until February 15th like this: the upper ones are closed, the lower ones are open 7-10 cm, depending on the strength of the colony. After February 15, when there may be brood in the family, the lower entrance is open by 7-10 cm, the upper one by 4-5 cm. In a cold room, where the temperature does not differ significantly from the outside, until February 25, the lower entrance is open by 5-7 cm, and the top ones are closed. After February 25, the lower ones are open by 5-7 cm, the upper ones by 4-5 cm.

In the winter hut, bees are kept in hives without roofs. At above-zero temperatures in the winter hive, thick pillows should be half-turned away from the hives or completely removed. With all wintering methods, the hive is insulated moderately. Excessively wrapping it up in winter is harmful to bees. When keeping bees in the wild, that is, in the open air, or in a cold room, the hives are insulated with thick, breathable pads. In the North-West zone, insulating pillows for winter are made of porous material that allows the fumes emitted by bees to pass through well. The best material for this is sphagnum moss. Pillowcases for the same purpose are made from loose fabric. Pillows made of cotton wool, tow and their waste are of little use, as they retain dampness in bee nests. Under no circumstances should you insulate the top of hives with paper in winter, as is done in spring. Paper does not allow air to pass through, and the bees will suffer from dampness and lack of fresh air.

Preparing a bee colony for winter begins in the summer. By processing nectar and turning it into honey, bees prepare nutritious and concentrated food for the winter generation. They store honey reserves in the upper part of the honeycombs so that they are convenient to use in winter conditions. Bees seal their honey reserves with impenetrable wax caps, which prevents honey from liquefying under conditions humid air, as well as its thickening and crystallization in dry air conditions.
Bee family in progress evolutionary development acquired instincts aimed at very economical consumption of honey in autumn-winter period. These include the expulsion of drones from the hive after honey collection. First, the bees drive them from the honeycombs to the walls and bottom of the hive. Here the drones become weak from hunger and the bees drag them outside, where they die. Only families without queens or with barren queens do not expel drones from the family, and they go into winter.
In preparation for winter, bees bring a sticky substance from the buds of some plants, processing it into propolis. Bees use propolis mixed with wax to seal cracks in the hive and cover up unnecessarily large entrances.
In autumn, the laying of eggs by the queen and the rearing of brood decreases and then stops. Families with old queens finish laying eggs and raising brood earlier, and families with young queens finish laying eggs later.
It has been established that in the pre-winter period, queens lay larger and heavier eggs than in the spring-summer period, and this largely determines more high quality bees of the autumn generation. In addition, in the pre-winter period, bees raise brood in conditions of a more abundant supply of honey and beebread to the family, which causes an increased in summer level of larval feeding that provides and best quality bees of the autumn hatch. Bees of the autumn generation develop at lower temperatures than bees of the spring-summer period, which should also be considered as their pre-winter preparation.
During the period of family preparation for wintering, there is a significant decrease in the number of bees, which is a consequence of their increased wear and tear collecting large amounts of nectar and processing it. Dies off at the end of summer big number working individuals of the June and July generations.
For successful wintering great importance has the time of the last cleansing flight of bees in the fall: with late flights, bees go into winter with a smaller load of excrement, which makes it easier for them to winter.
If at the beginning of the main honey flow the families are strong and are in spacious hives that do not restrict the queens’ egg-laying, then this is already a guarantee that they will remain strong by winter.
Intensive nectar collection reduces the life expectancy of bees, and by the end of the main honey flow, the strength of families is significantly reduced. In order to prevent the weakening of families, it is necessary to promote an increase in brood, starting from the second half of the honey collection.
An experiment was conducted at the Beekeeping Institute that convincingly showed the relationship between the strength of wintering colonies and the amount of food they consumed during the winter.
The minimum food consumption during the winter is observed in colonies with a strength of 9 to 12 bees. Deviation from this biological optimum, both in the direction of decreasing and increasing the number of bees in families, leads to a sharp increase in food consumption over the winter per unit of live weight of bees. The maximum food consumption over the winter was observed in the weakest colonies of 4-5 bees.
The data presented indicate that in winter there is a biological optimum for the strength of bee colonies, at which they endure an unfavorable period with minimal consumption of food and energy.
Per one street, bees of strong families consume 30-90% less honey during the winter than bees of average and weak families. Strong families, with big amount bees tolerate wintering well, have 2-2.5 times less mortality and are less affected by nosematosis than bees of medium and weakly vigor families. This is explained not only by the high number of bees, but also by their quality, since a strong family produces the most favorable conditions feeding and microclimate for their cultivation. As a result, bees from strong colonies experience less wear and tear during wintering and retain the ability to raise more brood in the spring. Therefore, families should have at least 2 kg of bees at the beginning of autumn, which corresponds to 8-9 streets. It is better to prepare stronger colonies in winter with a bee weight of at least 2.5 kg (10-11 bees).
In the conditions of the central zone of the country, bees hatched in the first half of July do not survive until winter; hatched in the second half of July - go into winter. Bees of the August hatch make up the bulk of wintering bees.
In first-class colonies going into winter with 25,000 young bees (2.5 kg), the bees hatch within 6 weeks. According to experimental data from the Institute of Beekeeping for 20 years, to create strong, well-wintering colonies, it is necessary that in mid-August they have brood on 5-6 honeycombs (on average about 12 thousand cells of printed brood). Bees born between August 5 and September 10 safely overwinter and intensively raise brood in the spring.
It cannot be expected that weak families can strengthen in July and August. At this time, they are only able to maintain their strength at the level achieved after the honey collection. Therefore, families should not be divided or weakened by brood selection after the end of honey collection; It is necessary to form new families, as well as strengthen weak layerings and families before the start of the main honey harvest.
Families are greatly weakened by the loss of queens during the main honey flow during honey selection. To avoid weakening families, it is necessary to promptly detect and correct queenless families by injecting them with spare fertile queens prepared in the nucs.
In weak colonies, brood feeding in the fall ends later than in strong colonies, and this is reflected in the food consumption in the fall and the fecal load of the hindgut.
On the amount of brood raised by bees during the preparation of the colony for wintering and other equal conditions The age of the queens has a significant influence. It has been established that colonies of bees with one-year-old queens raise 2 times more brood at the end of summer than families with three-year-old queens. Colonies with young queens go into winter stronger, with a larger number of young bees, have less mites and overwinter much better.
Old queens die in winter 50 times more often than young ones. The replacement of old and defective queens with young ones should be carried out before July, no later than 3-4 weeks before the start of intensive growth of bees in the winter, so that the beekeeper can assess the quality of the queens being transferred in advance. The supply of fresh nectar and pollen to the hive during warm weather stimulates the queens to lay eggs. Therefore, planting honey plants for flowering in late dates favor brood rearing. In the absence of such opportunities, stimulating feeding is used.
After the bees leave the cells, a winter club is formed on these honeycombs. On cold nights, bees increasingly gather in a club and spend their energy sparingly, thereby preparing for passive resistance to the adverse weather conditions of autumn and winter. This period corresponds to a slower pace of life and physiological processes, and joint actions are sharply reduced.

One of the most labor-intensive and important stages in beekeeping is preparing bees for winter. Low temperatures inhibit the development of the bee colony and do not have the best effect on the development of bees. Autumn increase in concentration carbon dioxide contributes to their physiological aging, and a decrease in temperature increases the energy expenditure of insects to regulate the microclimate inside the nest.
Therefore, ideally, wintering should take place without loss of members of the bee colony. And the bees should not lose their health and energy. For getting detailed information You can watch a video about the sequence of actions to prepare your pets for the cold season. Conditions that contribute to maintaining the activity of an overwintered bee colony and good honey collection include:
1) increasing the strength of the bee colony;
2) procurement of benign food by bees;
3) nest assembly and creation necessary conditions to support a family in winter.

In winter, bee colonies must go prepared

Building bees in autumn

It is quite difficult for bees, exhausted during the main harvest, to increase the number of young individuals necessary for successful wintering. Therefore, the end of the honey harvest should be marked by the autumn growth of bees. First of all, in the fall, every beekeeper must carry out a thorough audit of bee colonies.
If any of the strong colonies has neither eggs in the comb nor brood, it is worth checking it for the presence of a queen. At the end of the honey harvest period, there are significantly fewer worker bees, so in the fall the number of nests should be reduced. To do this, first of all, combs containing a small amount of honey are removed, and low-copper combs with brood are placed on the edge of the nest so that the queen bee cannot occupy them with new brood. To ensure your pets can easily transfer honey from the removed frames to the nest, they are placed one at a time behind the diaphragm of the hive.
The nest contains two or three frames partially occupied with honey with good cells. It is desirable that the honeycombs be light brown in color. Such honeycombs influence the reproductive instinct of the queens, which will begin to lay eggs much more actively.
To increase the strength of the bee colony during the absence of honey collection in nature, skilled beekeepers use various methods. For example, they provide stimulating feeding from sugar syrup (2 kg of sugar per 1 liter of water). And some take apiaries to areas with late honey production.
In order for colonies to winter safely, it is necessary to timely replace unproductive and old queen bees. Only young queens lay eggs a large number of eggs and are able to create strong bee colonies by winter. Every beekeeper's apiary must have cores with spare queen bees, which can quickly replace a missing queen from the family.

Procurement of quality feed

The most optimal time for bees to prepare food is July, that is, the first half of the main harvest. As a rule, bees need about 25-30 kg of honey product for the winter-spring period. Beekeepers leave two honeycomb frames with honey on each side of the nest, or put them in storage. The frames are returned to the hive when the bees prepare for winter in October.
For the winter, 20 kilograms are usually left in the nest. The remainder is removed to a room with stable temperature and humidity. Uniform indicators prevent unwanted crystallization of honey reserves.
Bees overwinter much more successfully on light varieties of honey containing less minerals (meadow, sweet clover, fruit, linden). If the beekeeper was unable to prepare a high-quality product in sufficient quantities, then it is better to replace 50-60% of the reserves with sugar. The preparations must not contain honeydew impurities. In winter, honeydew causes diarrhea in bees and leads to the death of entire colonies.
Therefore, at the end of the honey harvest, feed supplies must be checked for the presence of honeydew. Of course, it is safer to contact the field laboratories of the Beekeeping Institute. But if this is not possible, you can perform an independent analysis.
First you need to prepare lime water. To do this, quicklime is diluted with distilled or rainwater and the composition is shaken until the color of milk is obtained. The clear liquid formed from the settled mixture is poured into a clean container, and the liquid taken from different parts nesting honeycomb honey is mixed in a glass.
Next, mix one part of distilled (rain) water, one part of honey and 2 parts of lime water, and then shake and bring the resulting solution to a boil. Strong turbidity and precipitated flakes are a signal that it is better to replace such honey with a higher-quality product or sugar. But we must remember that this analysis may show inaccurate results.
Bees easily collect syrup from feeders and seal them while the warm weather lasts. Therefore, the beginning of September is the ideal time for feeding. The bee colony is fed from feeders according to the following scheme: 3-4 liters of syrup 2-3 times every 2-3 days. It is important to prevent bee theft.

Assembling a bee nest and installing hives for the winter

After hatching the bulk of the brood of the nest, instructions for assembling which can be seen in the video, it’s time to prepare the insects for wintering. If your pets spend the winter in a cold room or outside, it is preferable to leave the nest more compressed. Only honeycombs should remain in it, at least half filled with printed honey. In addition, in the honeycombs you need to leave two frames filled with honey and sealed beebread.

Sealed honeycombs are the main source of food for bees in winter.

Nucleuses where spare queen bees are located should be left with 10 kg of honey in 3-4 frames. The frames that have not yet been freed from the brood are temporarily placed at the edge of the nest. The nests are insulated from the sides and top. Before wintering, the bees themselves are treated for braulosis, varroatosis and other diseases. Upon completion of the nest assembly, the family must be treated with an acaricidal preparation.
In regions that do not differ harsh winters, bees winter quite successfully outside. In this case, the main condition is the presence of very well-insulated hives with entrance holes covered with boards. Bees thrive in sunny apiaries surrounded by forest, buildings or a fence. The best solution will place the hives with the front wall facing south.
Wintering in specially constructed winter huts has a number of undeniable advantages. These include good protection from wind, dampness and temperature changes, savings in honey reserves and ease of monitoring the condition of wintering bees. You can learn how to build a winter shelter from the video.
Preparing a winter hut for bees includes:

• construction of a winter hut with a temperature from + 4 to + 6° and air humidity in the range of 80-85%;
• ensuring ventilation in the summer-autumn period;
• destruction of mold, closing mouse holes;
• insulation of walls and ceilings.

Bees should be removed from the winter hut when cold weather sets in, when it is no longer possible to count on warm weather for flights of bees. The hives are brought into the winter road in dry weather. The movement must be carried out extremely carefully, otherwise the worried bees may leave the club and crawl away, which can lead to their death. The hives are placed on racks in two or three tiers.
The strongest colonies should be located at the bottom, and weak bee colonies and nuclei with spare queens should be located on the upper tiers. The entrances facing the passage should be opened only after the bees have calmed down. During the first days of wintering, the fans are left open and then adjusted to maintain the required temperature. The process of preparing for a safe winter is clearly shown in the video.

Good preparation of bees for wintering is very important point in beekeeping. Their successful development in the next season depends on how well the winter period goes in the life of bees.
When preparing bees for wintering, the first thing you need to do is determine the presence of a queen. This work is carried out in August, immediately after the end of honey sampling. The presence of a queen is determined by the brood. If the brood in the hive is only printed or absent, then the colony is given a control frame with eggs and larvae. If the bees begin to build queen cells on this comb, this means that there is no queen in the bee colony and it is necessary to urgently provide a spare queen or add the bees to another colony. There is no point in waiting for the queen to hatch at the end of August.

Not all bees going into winter are able to survive until spring and raise brood while maintaining productivity. The bee brood in the second half of August and early September experiences the least losses (about 10%) during the difficult winter period. Of those born in mid-August, only 60% remain productive in the spring. And only 30% of the bees that appeared at the end of September survive until spring. Based on these data, a beekeeper who wishes to the best way provide wintering for bees, should stimulate the development of oviposition by the queen during the period from August 10 to August 25. After September 1, the queen’s egg-laying not only becomes unnecessary, but also leads to wear and tear on the bees preparing for winter, which are forced to feed the brood.

For successful preparation Before wintering bees, the beekeeper must ensure that the bee colonies have a sufficient amount of high-quality food. The bee colony collects winter supplies from late honey plants in August and September. But these sources are very often scarce and therefore beekeepers, as a rule, either prepare honey frames in May-June, or feed the bees with sugar. Feeding with sugar is recommended in August-early September, because when processing sugar there is a lot of wear and tear on the bees and with later feeding the bees will go into winter weakened. In addition, feeding stimulates the queen to lay eggs and the bee colony can go into winter unprepared. On average, a bee street needs to have a honey supply of 2-3 kg. Bees willingly process sugar syrup and put it in honeycombs, and in winter they consume it first. The syrup is prepared in the following proportion: 1 kg. sugar per 600 g of water and give to the bees in large portions of 3-4 liters per day. When the honeycombs are filled with food and the supply of nectar has stopped, the queen bee stops laying eggs. This, in turn, leads to the fact that biologically young bees do not wear out feeding brood and winter well.

In August, it is necessary to regularly monitor which plants the bees are working on. When bringing heather or honeydew honey into the hive, the beekeeper needs to take all measures to exclude this honey from the winter reserves. Consumption of honeydew honey in winter will cause diarrhea in bees and, as a result, mass death. Heather and some other types of honey harden very quickly in winter and become difficult for bees to reach.

The last autumn inspection of bees when preparing bees for wintering is carried out in mid-September. The beekeeper forms the nest of the bee colony: he removes the low-copper frames and replaces them with full-copper ones, places the frames with brood against the walls of the hive, removes the extra frames in the given family and levels out the food reserves of the bee colonies. On average, one street should account for 2-3 kg. honey

Bee bread is left in the nests in the smallest quantities possible. When consuming bee bread, the bees' intestines fill up faster and, in addition, brood appears in the colony, which the wintering bees are forced to feed. So that the club of bees begins to form on the warm side of the hive, and not in the center, the entrances are shortened to the right (warm) side of the hive.

Preparing bees for wintering includes work on repairing and tidying up the winter hut. The premises are cleaned and disinfected. During the summer, the hibernation room for bees is ventilated and dried.

In the autumn, preventative work is carried out in the apiary infectious diseases bees: this is mainly the prevention of variotosis and nosematosis.

All work on preparing bees for wintering is completed at the end of September and the bees are not disturbed until the bees are installed in the winter hut. 2-3 days before cleaning the hives for the winter hives, replace the polished canvases with clean ones, through which in winter it will be better for the air exhaled by the bees and saturated with moisture to pass through. To facilitate the transition of a club of bees from one frame to another, a piece of plywood with centimeter slats is placed on top of the nest.