An important aspect in keeping hives is the knowledge of how to prepare bees for winter. A prosperous winter will become a pledge of the spring development of the bee family and its activity in the summer months.
How to prepare bees for winter?
In autumn, the number of bees in the family increases due to favorable conditions and increased productivity of the uterus. It is the bees that were born in the beginning of autumn, will safely winter and will become excellent workers next spring. Therefore, for the wintering the families of bees are chosen, in which a large number of young individuals.
For the winter, those bees are left, which were taken out no later than the end of September. Collecting food and brood-breeding bees will not survive until spring, also those individuals that were born late and did not have time to fly around before the onset of cold weather, will not tolerate wintering and may die.
For the wintering period, the humidity in the hive is important. Increased humidity spoils the livelihoods of the family, it is better to sacrifice feed stocks, but to increase ventilation. The likelihood of mold on the honeycombs is high, therefore, humidity must be controlled and artificial materials that do not pass water vapor poorly should not be used for insulation.
Beef feeding for the winter
Remove all freshly built and low-copper frames, and then carefully insulate the socket. The lower tray must be reduced and the upper one closed, so that the heat retained in the hive. To maintain the activity of bees and create favorable conditions for the laying of eggs, bees need to be fed after the cessation of nectar intake. For this, in August, you can put a printed low-copper frame behind the plaque or, if you do not have enough stock, give the bees a sugar syrup, prepared in a 1: 1 ratio. The daily norm for one family of bees is 1 liter of syrup. Growing mass of bees is impossible without pollen, so in case of rainy weather, when the supply of pollen is impossible, replace it with pergata honeycombs.
Beef feeding for the winter begins with the onset of autumn, then the family must be inspected again, their nests must be sorted. Instead of freshly built and empty frames put a full-fledged honey, honey-perga honeycombs are also used, which must be pre-prepared in the period of the main bribe. Nests are formed on the basis of the strength of the family, expecting that a full street of bees should account for 2.5 kg of honey or more. If in your locality there is no early bribe in the spring, then it is necessary to store 3 pergones for each family, as well as honey in honeycombs (about 5 kg) or an appropriate amount of sugar. Collecting nests, do not be afraid to make a mistake in the big party, but remember that too much honey is also undesirable.
It makes sense to replace 7-8 kg of honey for feed with a syrup that will be eaten by bees from the end of August and until 10 September. The decrease in temperature after mid-September reduces the activity of bees, and the syrup will be poorly processed. Syrup is made from hot
For a rational feed intake, several families of bees can be lodged for the winter in one hive, dividing them with a blind partition. A prerequisite for assembling the nest for wintering will be the correct location of the honeycombs. Full copper honeycombs should be placed in the middle, and further - as the weight decreases. There is a danger of death of the entire family of bees, if in the middle of the nest gets a honey-pergovy honeycomb. There is a possibility that it will cause separation of the bees, the club will split and the bees will die. Honeycombs with perga are best placed second from the edge.