Do you over winter your bees

[Skyhook]

I'm have a hard time understanding why my hives that over wintered good last year are also doing fine this year.

You're right, it's not as simple as Y/N- but varroa is the elephant in the room, and until that's addressed it hardly seems worth asking other questions.

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[Anduril]

From a Canadian website a beekeeper uses the same principle as Finman with a top bee entrance and he hasn't lost a hive in 19 years. Stops bees from suffocating if the bottom entrance was to become clogged with dead bees. He also uses tar paper to keep the hive dry. It must be a useful concept to keep the bees alive in their climate.
Finman top bee entrances are they used by all Finnish beekeepers?
Bee view farm do you belong to the Wisconsin honey producers or one of the beekeeping clubs? If you do there should be a wealth of knowledge to call upon.

 

[Bee View Farm]

From a Canadian website a beekeeper uses the same principle as Finman with a top bee entrance and he hasn't lost a hive in 19 years. Stops bees from suffocating if the bottom entrance was to become clogged with dead bees. He also uses tar paper to keep the hive dry. It must be a useful concept to keep the bees alive in their climate.
Finman top bee entrances are they used by all Finnish beekeepers?
Bee view farm do you belong to the Wisconsin honey producers or one of the beekeeping clubs? If you do there should be a wealth of knowledge to call upon.

I have not beem a member of the Wisconsin honey producers in years. Our county beekeepers club is starting back up after almost 20 years of not having any county club.

I have my hives inside, with only the inner clover on them with the hole open, so i know they are dry.

 

[Anduril]

Will there be experienced beeks at the county club or will it mainly consist of newbie beeks. It sounds like a good start after almost 20 years. If you could get speakers in from other counties it would be useful. I wish you well.

 

[Skyhook]

I have my hives inside, with only the inner clover on them with the hole open, so i know they are dry.

Is that normal in your part of the world? It sounds hard work for them to keep the cluster up to temperature. Even Finman gives ventilation through a small front entrance, not a gaping opening in the top of the hive!

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[Finman]

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In Northern Europe we have nothing to learn from USA or from Canada about wintering.

They boath use same uninsulated boxes and wrapping and they use southern bee strains.

Varroa issuea are 10 years after Europe.

Finland is at the same level as Alaska. In Alaska they use same uninsuated hives and many of them are not able to over winter bees. They kill bees and bye new package bees in spring. Those 5 frames colonies are not able to forage the whole yield season.

in Canada 80% of beekeepers are professionala but they do not tell how they manage bees. They compete to each other.

I have been years on Beemaster forum. I can only say that it has been waste of time. It is a great country, which has great tolerances, but their bees have not so wide tolerances. Beeks are full of themselves "Me America - Me no problems".
It is same what I have written to US guys, they have their idiot habits.

The first thing is that they have not climatically adapted bee strains. They cannot imagine what it means.

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[user 6228]

skyhook:
The U.S. beekeeping world seems to have modelled itself around he conclusions in a paper called the "THERMOLOGY OF WINTERING HONEY BEE COLONIES"
in which they have latched on to conclusions of a very detailed but poorly designed experiment.
It is poorly designed in that all the experiments are essentially high heat loss environments although some might appear to be described as low heat loss.
look carefully at the hive design used and the lack of quantitive measurement of the thermal conductance of the standard and "packed" environments.

The conclusions imply that the their findings are universally true and have no caveats as to their applicability.

contrast this with the paper "Importance of hive insulation for Wintering development and honey Yield in Norway" E. Villumstad

 

[Dishmop]

Our wind and rain kills people every year through heat loss, even though they are dry.

?????????????????????

 

[Finman]

Finman top bee entrances are they used by all Finnish beekeepers? .

If you have a mesh floor, then there is no top entrance

Many keep a feeding entrance which has a jute clothe and it penetrates moisture.

Yes, upper entrance is usefull then when ice and dead bees stuck the lower entrance.

Some use so deep bottom boad 4 inch that the bottom will not be closed.


Innovations are many and beeks are ready to run blood for they best innovations.

 

[Finman]

Then you know nothing about heat transfer...
Our wind and rain kills people every year through heat loss, even though they are dry. it does not need to be Finland cold to kill!

Yes, lots of very deeply alcoholic persons die in winter but they will die in summer too.
Alcohol is here the biggest killer among work age men.

A guy in the pic on his foraging trip from super market (foraging daily beer)

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[alldigging]

A guy in the pic on his foraging trip from super market (foraging daily beer)

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So that's a drone?

 

[Bee View Farm]

Is that normal in your part of the world? It sounds hard work for them to keep the cluster up to temperature. Even Finman gives ventilation through a small front entrance, not a gaping opening in the top of the hive!

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This is a photo of the inner cover. The hole in to is called the bee escape hole. Some beekeepers get the bees out of a honey super be useing a bee escape. We always take the telescoping cover off for ventilation in winter. You can see the sugar candy that i feed. These are 10 frame hives. I also have 8 frame equipment. We started out with 8 frame equipment. Then 10 frame. Most beekeepers said 8 frame was outdated, but now they make new 8 frame equipment again. If you saw the photo of may place that was taken in 1909. All the hives in that photo are 8 frame.

 

[Skyhook]

This is a photo of the inner cover. The hole in to is called the bee escape hole. Some beekeepers get the bees out of a honey super be useing a bee escape. We always take the telescoping cover off for ventilation in winter. You can see the sugar candy that i feed. These are 10 frame hives. I also have 8 frame equipment. We started out with 8 frame equipment. Then 10 frame. Most beekeepers said 8 frame was outdated, but now they make new 8 frame equipment again. If you saw the photo of may place that was taken in 1909. All the hives in that photo are 8 frame.

I would be astonished if my hives survived winter with only that on top, and I'm in southern England!

 

[Bee View Farm]

I would be astonished if my hives survived winter with only that on top, and I'm in southern England!

We did the samething when we left hives outside for winter. It can get down to -20 here sometime, but ours winter have been warmer then years ago. The bee basement can hold around 80 hives. Years ago when we had 150 to 175 hive here at the home yard we had to heve a lot of hives outside as you can see in this photo.

 

[Into the lions den]

I would be astonished if my hives survived winter with only that on top, and I'm in southern England!

lol.......I think you miss the point..........this is INDOOR wintering OP is talking about. Not unusual in the prairie states/provinces, where vast numbers are sometimes wintered in temperature controlled sheds. They are kept in the dark, in a cool but not VERY cold shed or basement, through the whole coldest part of the year, and are not meant to fly or be active, yet not so cold they cannot move to fresh stores or chuck the dead out. No polystyrene or wrapping or upper holes needed.

A lot of stuff that has been said in this thread is irrelevant to the OP's situation.

 

[Drew]

A lot of stuff that has been said in this thread is irrelevant to the OP's situation.

That'll be a first!!!

 

[Finman]

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It is very easy to overwinter hives on Wisconsin level outside. Winter is much more shorter than we have.

I have wintered bees 50 years at latitude of Anchorage of Alaska and with same system they over winter in more severe environment.

YOu need to do certain tricks and that's it.

This discussion is mere chaos.

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[Bee View Farm]

lol.......I think you miss the point..........this is INDOOR wintering OP is talking about. Not unusual in the prairie states/provinces, where vast numbers are sometimes wintered in temperature controlled sheds. They are kept in the dark, in a cool but not VERY cold shed or basement, through the whole coldest part of the year, and are not meant to fly or be active, yet not so cold they cannot move to fresh stores or chuck the dead out. No polystyrene or wrapping or upper holes needed.

A lot of stuff that has been said in this thread is irrelevant to the OP's situation.

40 degree is the best temp. Bees can move around in the hive

 

[Finman]

Wisconsin is at same latitude as southern France.

What months you have permanent snow cover?

When willows start to bloom?
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We have snow cover from 1.12 to 15.4. and willows start blooming 1.5

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[Skyhook]

lol.......I think you miss the point..........this is INDOOR wintering OP is talking about. Not unusual in the prairie states/provinces, where vast numbers are sometimes wintered in temperature controlled sheds. They are kept in the dark, in a cool but not VERY cold shed or basement, through the whole coldest part of the year, and are not meant to fly or be active, yet not so cold they cannot move to fresh stores or chuck the dead out. No polystyrene or wrapping or upper holes needed.

A lot of stuff that has been said in this thread is irrelevant to the OP's situation.

Fair enough... but he is wintering them at around 32, and even at that, having a large open hole above the cluster seems a bit odd.