Putting the Bees to Bed

As a cold front approaches the Ottawa area, it is time to put the bees to bed for the winter.  

Here is me in our bee yard.

This is the before photo.

 To get a hive ready for winter the first step is to add the Bee Cosy.

The boys call this the bees' "winter coat".  I then remove the feeder pail from on top of the inner cover.  This pail contains sugar syrup (2 parts sugar to 1 part water).  The bees eat this syrup in the fall when there are no natural food sources left.

I also prop the hive up at the back so that it is tilted slightly forward.  This allows any condensation to flow to the front of the hive and out the entrance instead of dripping down the center of the hive onto the cluster of bees.  I add a sheet of Styrofoam between the inner and outer cover for insulation.  Lastly, I hammer in a nail above the entrance.  This stops the Bee Cosy from blocking the entrance.  This facilitates air circulation and allows the bees to get in and out of the hive freely.

The bees do not love me hammering on their hive. 
A bunch came out the front entrance to see what was going on.

The after photo: a fully winterized hive.

My winterized bee yard.

Our final tally going into winter is three strong hives and one weak hive.  We also have two deep supers with full honey frames from two of our hives that did not survive the fall.  We will use these frames to feed the over-wintered hives in the spring before the dandelions bloom.

All the extra bee equipment we need to store for the winter.

There is nothing to do now but scrape down my extra equipment, wash my very dirty bee suit, and hope for the best.  Happy hibernating honey bees!