Beekeeping Journal, Winter 2021

Peeking in through the Vivaldi Board. They’ve been slowly eating the dry sugar I gave them a month ago.

Beekeeping tasks during the colder months of the year here in the Pacific Northwest are pretty minimal.  I’ve learned that after putting them “to bed” in the late fall, the primary job is making sure they have enough food to get through the long, wet winters here.  If they’ve started the season with a enough numbers, they should be able to keep warm with plenty of food on hand.  But if their hive cluster dwindles too much, which can happen by Spring, they can literally starve even if they have honey stored at the outer reaches of the hive box.  Why? Because their first priority is to contribute warmth through the energy they produce fanning their wings in unison. They will move up through the center of the hive, following the rising heat to stay warm, but not towards the outer edges.  It’s the reason why we move the brood box to the bottom of the hive stand in the Fall, and place honey stores above, to give them every chance to move up to more warmth and food.  It’s also why I give them supplemental food during the Winter, just to make sure they have enough to get to Spring.  The easiest way I’ve found to feed them during the cold times is giving them dry sugar sprinkled in through the Vivaldi Board screen.  It’s the easiest, least disruptive, and most effective method I’ve come across yet.  Takes only a minute, and keeps the valuable heat in.  So far this winter, I’ve added sugar just a couple of times, an indication I’m taking to mean their food stores are still good.  If we get a 50+ degree day, I may pop in to see if I can move any honey stores closer in for them.