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2014-2015
December
January - February
March
SC Winter Beekeeping
Winter management begins in December and goes thru March up to the nectar flow. Generally, the
beekeeper should:
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Be looking for diseases
Making sure the colony has enough “honey” and feeding if necessary
Ordering last minute queens / NUCs / packages
Ensure that excess water vapor from consumed “honey” is evaporated out of the hive
Making sure the queen starts laying in the December / January time frame and builds up
consistently and normally
Swarm control measures starting the end of February / first of March
December
Copyright David E.
MacFawn 2014;
SCBA and SC local
associations have
permission to use.
Starting about mid-December
the queen should start laying.
Some colonies in South Carolina
the queen will just reduce her
egg laying in the November /
December time frame and you
will have brood in the colony
year round. You need to check
the colony for honey typically
by lifting the back or side of the
hive to determine if it feels
heavy. A light hive, about the
weight of the woodenware,
should be fed internally. Do
not use a Boardman feeder or
division board/frame feeder
since the cluster may not have
access to the syrup when it is
cold. Bees cluster at 57
degrees F., so you should
inspect your hives when the
external temperature is about
60 degrees F. The entrance
reducer should be on the
smallest opening. IPM bottom
boards, that are open and
screened on the bottom, I
typically leave open. It rarely
gets into the low 20’s at night
and the bees have been shown
to survive in much colder
temperatures. A twig should
be placed between the inner
cover and outer cover to vent
Hive Entrance
The bees will typically fly when temperatures are above about 50 degrees F.
Observe the hive entrance, to see if you see the following:
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The bees are flying
 If the bees are flying, are they bringing in pollen, which indicates that
brood is being raised inside the colony.
 There is a correct number of guard bees and bee activity at the
entrance for the time of the year.
excess moisture from honey
consumption.
The bees have to maintain a 9497 degree F temperature in the
brood cluster. On a cold day if
the cluster is broken, they will
have difficulty reforming the
cluster. That is why the
temperature should be about
60 degrees when you inspect
the colony.One inspection midDecember is typically enough
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Copyright David E.
MacFawn 2014;
SCBA and SC local
associations have
permission to use.
Winter Management December ……..Continued
Make those last minute bee and queen purchases this month. Also, this month you should continue
repairing old equipment and assembling / painting any new equipment that you will need. Arranging
for any additional out yards should also be done no later than this month since you will need time to
prep the new out yard.
January
December & January Task
Task for December, plus you should open the colony in Mid-January, when the temperature is above
60 degrees F to check for:
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Enough honey & pollen
Queen laying with brood. Check the brood for presence of American Foulbrood (AFB). Check for Varroa.
There will probably not be any Drone brood in January that you can inspect.
Treat if necessary for Varroa or AFB. If you have AFB I recommend burning the hive.
Check for other diseases and take necessary action. In South Carolina we typically do not have issues
with dysentery since the bees are able to fly frequently and defecate.
The Maples should start to bloom the end of January to first of February. You should be on the look for this and on warm days
ensure that your colonies are bringing in pollen. This verifies that the queen is indeed laying and there is brood present in the
colony.
Corona Apicultores—Facebook
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February
In February, ensure there is honey, pollen, disease free, and brood. This is when the colony needs the resources to ramp up for
Spring. Brood rearing kicks into high gear around the end of February to first of March. Inspecting every two weeks the first of
February and every 1-2 weeks the end of February depending on the season.
Swarming conditions should be examined at the end of February. The colony typically can swarm any time after the Drones start
flying the end of February to first of March. Swarm conditions are indicated in congestion in the brood nest. If the bees are wall
to wall in the brood nest then you need to relieve this congestion by accomplishing one of the following:
Removing frames and
equalizing all your colonies;
i.e. place the frames from
the strong colony in a weak
colony.
Weak Hive
frames of brood with nurse bees
super
Queen
Excluder
Strong Hive
3 or 4 Frames
from brood Box
deep
Brood/deep box
Some beekeepers cut swarm queen cells.
Most beekeepers cannot make this work
since they either miss a swarm queen cell
or the bees raise more swarm cells. This is
also very labor intensive.
Pagdening - In the Pagden method, the
hive that is intending to swarm has a
frame of brood together with the queen
removed and placed into another brood chamber filled with drawn
comb or foundation. This ‘new hive’ is put on the old site and the
‘parent’ hive containing the rest of the brood and bees moved to
one side. The supers can go back to the old site too, as the foragers will rejoin the queen and, as there is little brood to feed, can
store what they bring in. There will be a shortage of young bees in
with the queen and so they will give up their
inclination to swarm. The old parent part of
the colony raises themselves another queen
and the field force comes into the new hive
believing they have swarmed.
replace brood
frames w/drawn
comb
Demaree - simulating swarming in one hive.
You will keep all your workers in the same hive.
Move 3 frames
of brood with
day old eggs
with 2 frames
of honey stores.
Removing frames and making up a NUC. Make sure all
colonies are disease free. It is usually considered better
to install a new queen rather than letting the “SPLIT”
raise their own queen. This will impact your honey
yield. When you let the colony raise their own queen it
takes approximately 12-16 days to raise the queen
( you can shorten this time by using a queen cell) + a
week or ten days or so for the virgin queen to mate +
21 days for the worker brood to hatch. So, you are
looking at six or so weeks to get workers which put you
into mid-April.
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February
When you do swarm
prevention measures, make
sure both halves of the
“split” have honey, pollen,
and eggs / day old larvae. Just adding an additional super
above the brood nest will not relieve congestion in the
brood nest. You have to use swarm prevention measures
to relieve this brood nest congestion. Splitting simulates
the bees natural swarming of one swarm a year from a
strong colony. Splitting also implements a brood break
which helps minimize your Varroa count.
Swarm cells are typically toward the bottom of the brood
frames. You are looking for enlarged cells that hang
down from the frames and look like a “peanut in the
shell.” Empty queen cups on the frames are a poor
indicator of swarming.
Swapping locations of a strong colony with a weak colony resulting
in the weak colony receiving more field bees.
March
In March ensure there is honey, pollen, disease free, and brood.
Honey quantity should be observed at least weekly and feed as
necessary. Colonies can go thru a deep frame or more of honey in a
week or less; especially toward the end of the month. Most of our
colonies that starve are in March. Checks of nectar flow occurrence
should occur toward the end of the month. I recommend that
honey supers be placed on hive the fourth week in March. It is
better to be ahead of the nectar flow than is late. Always look for
swarm conditions and take the necessary actions.
White Honey Comb
(top left)
and
Nectar (lower right)
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All medications should be removed from the hive the first of
March to middle of March depending on what you are treating
with.
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There are 3 basic ways to detect a nectar flow.
1.
The first way is opening the colony and seeing white
fresh comb on the edges of your drawn honey supers.
2.
The second way is to visually inspect for fresh nectar in
the colony.
3.
The third way is observing bees flying in and out with a
“sense of purpose.”
Last of March
flying with a purpose
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David MacFawn Biography
David Elgie MacFawn:
He is a North Carolina Master Craftsman Beekeeper, Co-Founded the South
Carolina Master Beekeeping Program, awarded South Carolina Beekeeper of
the Year, assisted Dr. Fell at Virginia Tech in the Virginia Master Beekeeping Program, Incorporated
the South Carolina Beekeepers Association as a 501 C 3 Non Profit Corporation, and published several (over five) articles in the American Bee Journal. David has kept bees in Maryland (Dark German
bees), Virginia (Italian), North Carolina (Italian), Colorado (Russian), and South Carolina (Italian
and Russian Hybrid).
David’s Work History:
David has a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration with concentrations in Finance and Operations Research. David was in the computer business for over 30 years
and was a Customer Service director responsible for worldwide support planning, training/education,
logistics, call center support, and professional services at Sun Microsystems and a subset of this at
NCR. David was also a Federal Systems Product Manager responsible for new DOD system definition and development at Data General.
David’s Beekeeping Business Endeavors:
David is a beekeeping author and has co-authored a practical guide to beekeeping book, "Getting the
Best From Your Bees".
He also developed, marketed, and supported spreadsheets analyzing financial aspects of the honey
and pollination businesses, and beeswax candle production and sales.
David and his wife reside in the Columbia, South Carolina, and is an active sideline beekeeper.
Copyright David E. MacFawn 2014; SCBA and SC local associations have permission to use.
All artwork & graphics was taken with permission from the web or was the personal property of Cynthia Robinson.
If you are interested in reprints of this document, please contact [email protected] or [email protected]
Cynthia Robinson Bio
The Winter Management was edited and graphic layout created by Cynthia Robinson. Known as the
Beekeeper On Duty. Cynthia lives in Clover, SC with her husband. She has two grown married sons with
three grand children. Cynthia began beekeeping in 2005 with Sally Adams/Mamabeehive as her mentor.
Cynthia is a Journeyman Beekeeper and is now holding a SC State office as Secretary and acts as media
tech at all SC Conferences. Cynthia also serves as the Web Administrator for SC State Beekeepers
Association. Cynthia has published many beekeeping newsletters for local and currently produces the
State Association Newsletter.