Care Of Bees During The End Of Honey Collection

Starting from the 20th of August, beekeepers need to gradually prepare bees for winter. 

It is necessary to consider the state of the bee colony on August 24-25 - if it is strong and healthy, it means that it will overwinter well. At this time, honey should be taken , a pre-formed winter nest and anti-mite strips should be placed there. After collecting honey , the bees should have enough left. In addition, they need to be constantly fed with syrup, because the queen still has to increase her egg production so that more bees will overwinter , then they are more likely to survive. Within 3 weeks after that, you need to carry out stimulating feeding to build up the brood, finishing it no later than mid-September. After the cessation of feeding, bees stop raising brood.

For the winter, it is desirable to prepare bee colonies in the size of 6-7 hives and, if possible, of the same strength. For this, it is necessary to form layers from the best families, from which quality queens must be bred. The best layers will become the basis for the formation of new families instead of rejected ones, the weaker ones can be used to strengthen the families going for the winter, and it is desirable to join them just at the end of stimulating feeding. In September, it is necessary to put a partition against mice on the fly, and at the end of October - remove tick strips from the nests and sprinkle the bees with a liquid against them. 

You can unite families also in late autumn, when bees lose their queen and can no longer breed a new one. 

During wintering, the hive should have as many frames as the bees incubate , otherwise they will not be able to heat it and will die. A safety board is placed in the hive , thereby reducing its volume. Insulation is placed between the support board and the beehive wall. In November, bees form a winter club. Normally, they should be placed near the front wall. Even in winter, the hive should have normal ventilation. But at the same time it needs to be insulated. There are apiaries where bees spend the winter in pavilions. 

It is necessary to ensure that there is a sufficient amount of honey on each street . When there are severe frosts, the bees hardly move, for that reason they can die of hunger if their street has run out of honey , although there is still some in the neighboring ones. During thaws, you can check the progress of wintering. 

Sometime in February, bees have brood, feed costs increase. It is necessary to feed them: dough-like feeding - cakes prepared in a certain way from honey and powdered sugar are placed in polyethylene bags with holes on the upper bars of the hive frames . 

Liquid feeding with sugar syrup gives bees the illusion of honey collection. This can encourage departure - if it is cold, they die outside the hive . They take thick mixtures as needed. Liquid mixtures can also cause diarrhea in them. 

However, bees fly out for a short time in winter during a thaw, if the temperature is not lower than 14 degrees. During this period, beekeepers scatter straw on the remaining snow around the hives so that they do not die by sitting on the snow. 

Until spring, some beekeepers leave sealed combs with last year's honey and put them behind a partition, having previously unsealed them. This replaces feeding, bees will climb there for honey , it will create the illusion of a bribe and increase the number of brood, although not as much as during feeding with liquid syrup, which bees , obviously, regard as nectar.

In winter, you can provoke the uterus to blush. It will be good if spring starts early. But you can't guess, and if it gets cold, the bees will die or you will have to feed them again. It is also undesirable to restrain the redness of the uterus in February - it will not delay much. 

In early spring, the growth of families slows down, but with the arrival of warmth, the uterus gradually begins to worm. The number of old bees that survived the winter is decreasing. The stronger the colony in the spring, the faster it develops - in strong colonies , bees live about a week longer, and the optimal temperature in the hive is also maintained . From autumn, you can form temporary auxiliary families, the brood and bees of which are used to strengthen weak families, or combine two weak families.