Beekeeper Calendar Series: Winter

Have you ever wondered what beekeepers do during the winter months? Most often there is very little to be done within the hive once winter starts. That being said, beekeepers spend a significant amount of time planning and preparing for the upcoming spring. Beekeepers also know they must respect the natural rhythms of their colonies during the colder months. Read this week’s blog, along with those that will follow in this series, to learn more about a beekeeper’s calendar during each season.

Beekeeper’s Calendar Series: Winter

The onset of the winter beekeeping season starts after hives have been wrapped and insulated. If all preparation was done well, beekeepers have very little practical hive management to do during the winter months. It is good practice to occasionally check hives, especially after severe weather events to address any potential damage. Other than that, beekeepers should not disturb the winter cluster by opening the hive. This practice acknowledges the importance of allowing the bees to maintain their tightly knit cluster, which serves as a crucial mechanism for conserving warmth and energy during the colder months. Bees will remain clustered throughout the winter but will leave the hive for cleansing flights on warmer days.

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There is often a question of whether snow should be removed from hives throughout the winter. Overall, snow removal is deemed unnecessary as snow will provide additional insulation, contributing to the hive’s thermal regulation. It is important that the top entrance remains unobstructed by snow, thereby facilitating proper airflow, but the use of a telescoping cover should address this concern.

One other thing beekeepers should periodically check for is damage caused by skunks and raccoons. Skunks and raccoons start breeding in late winter. They may start ripping plastic and pulling out entrance reducers. Beekeepers should check hives and fix if necessary.

So, what are beekeepers busy doing during the winter months? Mostly, winter is when beekeepers plan for the upcoming spring. Now is the time to build and repair beekeeping equipment. Also, to be ready for spring, beekeepers should order any wooden ware or bees they will need. Ordering these items during winter ensures that beekeepers have everything they need on hand when the spring season commences. Overall, winter serves as a crucial planning and preparation period, allowing beekeepers to potentially grow their operation in the upcoming season.

The other important thing beekeepers will spend their offseason doing is attending meetings, taking various beekeeping courses, and reading new research. All of these things help keep beekeepers educated on what is happening in the industry, as well as knowledgeable about the latest advancements in beekeeping and integrate new, evidence-based, approaches into their own practices.

Beekeepers should attend provincial beekeeping associations annual general meetings. Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick all have annual general meetings during the months of January to March. Atlantic beekeepers should consider attending ATTTA’s virtual winter workshop series. All Canadian beekeepers can attend the BeeTech conference presented by the Canadian Honey Council and the Canadian Association for Professional Apiculturists this February. Finally, Atlantic beekeepers should consider enrolling in the Fundamentals of Beekeeping course presented by ATTTA and Dalhousie Extended Learning, which will start this March.

The winter months may appear quiet within the hives, but for beekeepers, these months are still a crucial part in the beekeeper calendar. This time is needed to plan for the upcoming season, and, even during the coldest months of the year, beekeepers still need to check that the hives look good externally. Additionally, winter is a season for education and growth for beekeepers. Engaging in meetings, enrolling in courses, and reading academic research, helps keep beekeepers educated and engaged with their industry. Stay tuned for more insights into a beekeeper's calendar throughout each season in future blogs from ATTTA.

Connecting with ATTTA Specialists

If you’d like to connect with ATTTA specialists or learn more about our program, you can:

visit our website at https://www.perennia.ca/portfolio-items/honey-bees/

Email abyers@perennia.ca

In the winter cluster blog of a few weeks ago, we said that bees had nowhere to go during the winter but, actually, they do need to step outside occasionally! Honey bees are tidy creatures and prefer not to defecate inside the hive. Under normal circumstances, honey bees will always leave the hive and defecate in flight. During cold winter months or rainy periods, they will retain waste inside their bodies until proper flying conditions return and this is perfectly healthy. Problems arise when flying days are too far and few between. In this blog, we will discuss the implications for honey bee health if colonies are not able to take valuable cleansing flights. 

Dysentery and Nosema - Winter Threats

If you are checking in on your hives every so often this winter and notice bee feces spotted around the snow, you can rest assure that your bees have gotten out for a cleansing flight. Cleansing flights occur on mild winter days, when temperatures rise above 10°C and there is no precipitation. Until this happens, bees are retaining waste matter within their rectum. This is healthy unless the bees are forced to store waste for too long, at which point they could develop dysentery or, worse, a clinical infestation of Nosema spores¹. 

Dysentery is an infection that causes honey bees to defecate inside their hive and becomes apparent through staining on hive bodies and frames. Serious infections can lead to an early death for colonies. Furthermore, dysentery can also be a symptom of a larger problem such as nosema disease.

Nosema is a disease caused by parasites that live and reproduce within the midgut of adult honey bees. Nosema species reproduce via spores, and when these spores are released during honey bee defecation, they have the potential to be orally transmitted to other members of the colony, thereby multiplying within the hive. 

If bees are forced to defecate inside a hive, the risk of spreading Nosema spores between individuals becomes greater. A study was recently published which explored the relationship between ambient air temperatures and Nosema levels in Swiss apiaries². Researchers found that when colonies experienced fewer flight days, when midday temperatures were lower than 10°C, they demonstrated higher levels of Nosema infestations. Spore levels were highest in winter and early spring.

Cleansing flights are important for colonies which are overwintered outdoors. When colonies are overwintered indoors, temperature and light conditions are regulated such that bees will remain inside the hive. Researchers in Alberta recently examined how differences in overwintering management might affect Nosema levels within honey bee hives³. Colonies overwintered outdoors have the potential for cleansing flights, but colonies overwintered indoors are subject to less environmental stress which is also known to exacerbate Nosema populations. Results were inconsistent in terms of the level of Nosema spores measured within hives overwintered outdoors or indoors, however, colonies overwintered indoors did have significantly higher survival rates even when suffering from high Nosema levels. This suggests that colonies overwintered indoors, potentially as a consequence of a more consistent and less stressful environment, could have a lower economic threshold level for treatment than those overwintered outdoors. 

Here in Atlantic Canada, the majority of beekeepers overwinter outdoors. This means that cleansing flights play an important role in our honey bee health, in particular when it comes to Nosema control. Testing and potentially treating hives with fumagillin before wrapping up for the winter is a valuable step in integrated pest management. Paying attention to the weather conditions over the winter and considering whether your bees have been able to take cleansing flights can already indicate to you whether Nosema treatment might be necessary in the spring. 

1. Pernal, S.F. and Clay H. (eds). 2013. Honey bee disease and pests, 3^rd Edition. Canadian Association Professional Apiculturists, Beaverlodge, AB, Canada 68 pp.

2. Punko, Rosanna N., Robert W. Currie, Medhat E. Nasr, and Shelley E. Hoover. 2021. “Epidemiology of Nosema Spp. and the Effect of Indoor and Outdoor Wintering on Honey Bee Colony Population and Survival in the Canadian Prairies.” Edited by Wolfgang Blenau. PLOS ONE 16 (10): e0258801. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258801.

3. Retschnig, Gina, Geoffrey Williams, Annette Schneeberger, and Peter Neumann. 2017. “Cold Ambient Temperature Promotes Nosema Spp. Intensity in Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera).” Insects 8 (1): 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects8010020.

Connecting with ATTTA Specialists

If you’d like to connect with ATTTA specialists or learn more about our program, you can:

visit our website at https://www.perennia.ca/portfolio-items/honey-bees/

Email abyers@perennia.ca