Honeybee Winter Survival in Langstroth Single Deep Hives
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- As the weather warms I get anxious to see how the bees are doing, and I'm especially concerned about my Langstroth hives for which I used single deep brood boxes. I did a quick spot check on these hives to verify the population and honey reserves as we begin to transition from Winter to Spring.
If you're new to this channel then my reluctance to feed, which I express in the video, may come as a surprise. Everyone feeds their bees, right? But I prefer to keep my bees using natural methods, and one of these is allowing the bees to feed as they would in nature and keep the resources they need in times of dearth (including winter). I also have a preference for Layens hives and, although I keep some Langstroth hives for comparison, I am still learning - as may be evident in these videos.
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I grew up on a farm on the edge of the Nebraska sandhills. A cattle ranch that bears our family name, founded in the late 1800s by my ancestors, is still owned and worked by my cousin. Life events have put me in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area in middle America, where my wife and I have raised our two kids. It's in this environment that I work to make as sustainable a life as I can, converting much of our backyard to grow food, including a garden, fruit trees and bee hives.
I attempt to use natural methods, as much as is possible, in my gardening and beekeeping. I garden organically and continue to learn to work with the soil and the plants, without the use of chemical supplements, herbicides or pesticides, to improve our harvest. Our honey bees are sourced from local colonies through swarms, trap-outs and cut-outs, and are kept, using treatment-free, natural methods, in Layens horizontal hives.
Mineral wool breaths. But should be sealed away from animals for air quality. The mineral fibers can irate lungs. Mineral wool soaking wet still hold 80% of the heat in and can be used underground. Fiberglass degrades ever time it gets wet and looses r value over time. Plus it seems more organics grow in fiberglass. I like double deep frames and no break in between for bees to have to jump the gap. I would leave cross come between upper and lower for winter. Seen a few dead out with honey above bees. One of the reasons I use Lazutin frames.
Good morning, and I'm glad to see they and you are doing well, it always makes you feel good to see them.
It's fun to try different styles of beekeeping.👍
I used singles you don't have to feed the bees if they bring in enough of their own stores, the only issue I ran into with a few was them being to strong for the single so they wouldn't have had enough space for food. So I decided to keep them in doubles or a single with a medium.
The feeding theory to my understanding, is you feed them while they are drawing down in size so that they back fill with food. I'm still real new to all this but I have found if they are bringing in enough natural food sources you really don't need to feed much. I keep getting started later then I'd like so they don't have the ample time to fill them selves up on their own power. But each season I am getting it dialed in better on my local season timing, step by step.
I had been wondering how things were going, glad to see ya and glad your bees are doing well. Blessed Days...
I may have been okay without feeding. Last fall I pulled the supers to let the bees build up during fall flow, and as I mentioned in the video they had pretty good stores which might have been adequate. But without prior experience I followed the sources I could find for single deep management. This year I might experiment with taking at least one single deep into winter without feeding.
Howdy Montie. It's a little cool for bees here in central New Hampshire. I do have a couple light hives. I wrapped them tight in fall. I would like to check them, we have a 40 degree f day coming up. We still may have a month or more of below freezing weather before the first red maple pollen. I have 3 double 10 frame langs, 2 double 5 frame langs, 2 25 frame Layens, 1 15 frame Layens, a 7 frame Layens and a 6 frame Layens nuc, all still have bees humming inside when I listen with a stethoscope. All of them got out on a 46 degree f day last week. Glad your bees are doing well, peace, Brice
47 degrees here in lower Michigan. Bees were flying. 9 for 9 so far but winter is not over. All my bees are local from swarms i caught and treatment free. Half i layens and others in langstroth
Here in far NW LA they seem to be doing great. Haven't opened them yet, but have sat and watched them bringing in pollen.
Spring build-up has begun. 👍
(Currently have 3 Layens hives with plans to split those and catch a few more swarms this year)
Hives in southern Louisiana and hives in Alaska. 5ft of snowfall in the past week up here in Alaska. Hives in Louisiana doing great, won't be able to check the Hives here in Alaska until end of March or early April due to sub zero temps.
Great stuff.
I run all double deeps that hold 18.5” frames. So they overwinter great!!! I also wrap my hives. I agree-insulation is key all year long really. It does help the hive reserve their resources. Thx
Thanks for all the videos, very helpful. I'm interested in building a version of your langstroth and layens conversion hive. I'm hoping as spring comes in you will do some updates .
Thank you for your comment. I'm working on a new hive design and have some ideas for a conversion adaptation, but no idea when that might be ready to reveal. I'm trying to convince myself to take on only a few things at a time. 😁
Seems like there is a lot going on there on top. I would just use double layer reflective bubble insulation on top of inner cover, it works great. This way you seal off the top and no heat gets out. If you worry about condensation, remember that bees need water.
It's been a warm winter. Seen honey bees flying today. I leave a lot of honey 70-80 pounds in Lazutin hives. love the queen excluder use. Beautiful outer frame. I leave a winter "Hat" on mine till memorial day. But central U.P. of MI.
Agree with you completely regarding insulating your hives resulting in less food being consumed.
Wild bees in trees hae R value of around 6. Standard wooden, single walled hives with 3/4 inch wood have R value of as little as .75 so it is not suprising many die in winter and are a month behind before getting going.
Make my own insulated hives with sides being around 6R value and roofs at least 9R. This results in all year round comstant temperature so warm in witer and cool in summer.
Bees do regular cleansing flights in temperatures as low as 6 degrees and ar active on many days throughout winter in warmer spells.This results in healthier hives come spring.
In summer they never need to fan so instead spend time collecting honey, so yield is higher. Also completely seal tops making sure there is plenty of dense foam sheet. Find them being condensing hives makes for a dry roof with damp sides so they have warm water on hand to disolve stores.
All basic common sense trying to copy natural tree enviromment. Why attempt to change nature when it has spent tens of thousands of years working out the best way to survive!
You made a comment about the insulation being a factor. Many of the old timers will tell you it makes the bees more active and therefore they use more resources. However, recent research has shown the opposite to be true.
I've had several people tell me that old timers' logic that the bees will use more in an insulated hive. But it's never made sense to me. Even without a study, it's seemed to me that bees vibrating their wing muscles just to generate heat are going to use a lot more calories. Even when the bees can move freely within the hive rather than in cluster, they're not really doing much over winter. So far the amount of honey left in my insulated hives seems to defy that old timers' argument.
Etienne Tardif has a video with some great honey consumption comparisons...
I did 4 hives insulated all year round and 4 not... this is my second winner doing so... seem the same losses... food around the cluster is the common issue... i took all they had, and some didn't have enough sugar.
Nice video! All of my 17 hives still have bees. Three of them aren’t as strong, so they may not make it all the way until spring. I insulate them well, and I feed them sugar .some needed it, some didn’t.
Be carefull who you listen to regardless of how long they have been a beekeeper. I have only been at this for 44 years but common sense and my experience tells me that the escaped moisture will be replaced by cold outside air. Lets look at it as moving the moisture to where it can be usefull while making their lives better rather than just survival.
Question: Where is the upper ventilation hole? Nice video. I'm waiting for the weather to break a little bit more before I go opening things up.
My hives are all doubles plus a medium. I have one colony that was a mid summer save after a tree fell at one of our local schools. I was able to save the bees and place them in a single deep. I checked in late December when I had decent weather. We got hit in January with cold and so I don't know if they made it through or not.
I do like your insulation on the box.
Upper ventilation is of little benefit and greater detriment, IMO. The laws of thermodynamics are unavoidable. When heat is generated (by the bees) that heated air will rise and vent out of the upper exit to be replaced by cold air coming in through the entrance. This chimney effect will require the bees to work harder to maintain survival temperature within the cluster and surrounding air.
I know that the intent of the upper vent is to exhaust excess moisture, but I believe that to be an unnecessary and possibly damaging goal. Moisture in the hive is not a problem unless it condenses above, and drips down on, the bees. By having more insulation on the top of the hive than on the sides, condensation is unlikely to occur above the bees and will, instead, occur on the sides of the hive. That condensation on the sides of the hive can be very important as it may be the bees' only water source over winter and into early spring.
Derek Mitchell published a good paper about top ventilation a few years ago: eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/141140/5/honeybee_engineering.pdf. There are also some other sources around discussing ventilating vs. condensing hives.
I hope that your late colony makes it okay. It's always a struggle, for me, to get late season colonies adequately prepared for winter.
I agree with the lack of upper entrance and no upper ventilation. Frederick Dunn (UA-cam channel by the same name) speaks extensively about this also.
Not sure about your info but, 1 super of honey on top at the least
Are your bees from local swarms? If not, what type are they?
Yes, all are from local swarms, trap-outs or cutouts. These three Langstroth colonies are actually all descendant colonies from a cutout a couple years ago.