What’s happening inside the Hive?  

The bees keep their winter cluster intact, except on the occasional sunny days in the 50’s and above when the bees can fly.  The queen begins to lay eggs, and brood rearing begins in the largest, healthiest hives.  Cold weather will not hurt the bees if they are ready for it — with a good cluster size, plenty of stored honey, and the mites and nosema disease under control.  This is not too surprising, since hives are well adapted to overwinter successfully in northern Canada.  Bee hive cluster temperatures have been measured above 80o or 90 o on snowy January days.

Outside the hive

 This is the time for constructing, painting, and repairing equipment.  Most of the new catalogs from the beekeeping supply companies will be available in January.  Your goal should be to have the bees and the equipment ready by mid-April. Old, dark comb should be removed from frames in storage. If you are buying queens or package bees this year, order by January.  By February or March, many of the producers will be booked solid and not able to promise your shipment of bees before May.  The availability of queens and packages depends partly on winter weather in the southern states where they are produced.  A relatively cold winter will delay their production of bees. There will be a few days in these months above 60o.  If possible, take a few minutes to look at your hives.  If no bees are flying from a hive, you probably have lost it or it’s very weak and could die soon.  Open it and take a look. When examining a hive in late winter, you will be concerned with several things.  Are there signs of serious tracheal mite infestation?    It’s normal for a few dead bees to be carried out of the hive on warm winter days.   But if many bees are crawling and clustered on the ground in front of the hive, suspect tracheal mites.  They will be unable to fly and a few may have “Kwing” (wings sticking out at an odd angle).  Does a cluster of bees nearly as large as last fall remain?  How many honey frames are left? The bees should still have several frames with honey they stored last year.  You may add honey frames from other hives that have more honey, if necessary.  But do not break the cluster of bees by placing frames of honey inside of it.  The bees will need to maintain their cluster through the remaining cold weather of late winter and early spring. 

Observations and Ideas 

Take a look at the maple trees through the month of February. The maple flowers are a drab, dark red and bees collect yellow pollen from them.  This is an indication of the first availability of food for the bees, and that the end of winter is coming.

                                                                                       1