Wintering in North Alabama

[djgriggs]

Hello everyone, Hope you and your bees are well and Merry Christmas.. I am going into my first winter with my ladies and I want to do the best that I can . I have 2 larger hives that are doing well and I have one split that is doing somewhat well ( still feeding ). I am switching the split from 2:1 to a candy board with a 20 lb candy board . I have a few concerns being that it is my first winter but I will keep it limited currently to one comment / question.

I was told around September that I did not need to wrap my hives in the preparation for the Alabama Winter. as it really did not get cold enough.

1. Well it is 20 / 22 degrees this morning when I was out and I am thinking that its pretty $#%$ cold . So I am asking myself if I should have wrapped the hives in something. to help the bees cope ?
    Can you give me your thoughts / experience / and knowledge on this ???

Thank you

[Michael Bush]

Mine often survive -30 F and have even survived -40 F.  We consider a 22 F day to be warm around here...  I don't wrap my hives.

[The15thMember]

I'm in the Smoky Mountains, so my elevation may be higher than yours, but I'd wager my temps have been pretty similar to you.  I'm in my first winter too, and the only thing I did to winterize was a moisture quilt.  Like Michael said, people keep bees in much colder temps than us in the southeast.  By comparison our location is very mild. 

[djgriggs]

Thank you for the information

[Haveuseen1?]

What part of Alabama?   I am in North Alabama and just run 2 deeps with no added insulation. 

[Beeboy01]

The girls will survive a light cold snap with no problems. They just huddle up to stay warm and chill out. It is the extended cold periods, maybe over a month or better that can cause trouble in the hives. If the cluster can't move around the honey comb during a deep cold snap them they could starve. Your hives will be fine.

[BeeMaster2]

Haveuseen1,
Welcome to Beemaster.
Jim

[Ben Framed]

Haveuseen1,
Welcome to Beemaster.
Jim

X2
Phillip Hal "Ben Framed"

[Acebird]

The girls will survive a light cold snap with no problems. They just huddle up to stay warm and chill out. It is the extended cold periods, maybe over a month or better that can cause trouble in the hives. If the cluster can't move around the honey comb during a deep cold snap them they could starve. Your hives will be fine.

Sure a cold snap in the south is more damaging then in the north.  For the most part bees acclimated to the north do not raise a lot of brood in winter.  Less likely to get strong out then in the south.

[Live Oak]

Hello everyone, Hope you and your bees are well and Merry Christmas.. I am going into my first winter with my ladies and I want to do the best that I can . I have 2 larger hives that are doing well and I have one split that is doing somewhat well ( still feeding ). I am switching the split from 2:1 to a candy board with a 20 lb candy board . I have a few concerns being that it is my first winter but I will keep it limited currently to one comment / question.

I was told around September that I did not need to wrap my hives in the preparation for the Alabama Winter. as it really did not get cold enough.

1. Well it is 20 / 22 degrees this morning when I was out and I am thinking that its pretty $#%$ cold . So I am asking myself if I should have wrapped the hives in something. to help the bees cope ?
    Can you give me your thoughts / experience / and knowledge on this ???

Thank you

I strongly recommend insulating your hives in this latitude.  Not so much for extreme cold but to provide a layer of protection against the wild temperature swings that repeatedly cause the bees to uncluster and forage and recluster.  There is also the issue of brood being raise right now.  I am about 50 miles north of Florence, AL and nearly all of mine are raising brood.  Adding insulation to the outside and tops of the hive help to stabilize internal hive temperatures and thus provide a much better internal hive environment. 

I will attached some FLIR photo's of some of my nucs and hives that are insulated as I described above when I figure out how to reduce the size of the picture files to upload.  I have 3 Broodminder kits installed in 3 hives which demonstrate how the insulation has helped dampen or stabilize temperature swings. 

The quickest and easiest way to insulate your hives is to install Bee Cozies or you can wrap them with at least 3 layers of Reflectix Bubble insulation.  I buy the Johns Manville Polyisocyanurate 1.5 inch thick insulation boards and cut them into 18.25" x 14 11/16" inch sheets to install inside the top of the box covering my 1 gallon feeder buckets on top of my hives and 18.25" x 7.75" sheets for my nucleus colonies.  I put at least 2 sheets in the top of each hive for a total of at least 3" of insulation which comes to about R18.6.

Is insulation required for hives in our latitude?  No but if you want better survival rates and faster brooding up of your hives when warmer weather arrives, insulate.  A BIG reason I insulation is that last year I lost 12 of my largest and best hives that had heavily brooded up in late April.  We had 3 hard freezes in late April that came unexpectedly.  ALL of my hives had heavy losses due to being brooded up so much.  There was too much brood for the nurse bees to keep warm and protect.  They did not recluster because of this and hence the heavy losses.  Needless to say, the insulation will NOT come off of my hives until May.  If they get too warm, they can deal with it but they cannot survive unexpected hard freezes so late in Spring. 

[Haveuseen1?]

Live Oaks response brings up a few questions.

Would insulating the hives have any negative impact during the winter if you are in an area where it is really not needed?  Would insulating encourage earlier brood rearing?  Would the insulation create a higher demand for winter stores?  Would it increase the amount of supplemental feeding?  Create a longer season for mite and SHB control?


The reason I was curious about what part of North Alabama.  The North West portion seems to be cooler and more damp, the North Central seems to somewhat avoid the harsh winters ( for the most part ) and then the North East seems to be colder due to elevation.  I think North Central avoids some because of it is in the TN valley. I live in North Central and many winters I wear nothing more than a jacket on most days. 

[ArnoldHur]

Interesting questions about insulation. I hope someone with first-hand experience will pop in and answer them.

[Acebird]

Would insulating the hives have any negative impact during the winter if you are in an area where it is really not needed?

There is a million dollar question...
The preparation for winter survival is as varied as the variation among beekeepers.  Each location has its own issues.  My hives in Utica, NY had a single sheet of 2" foam on the top of the hive and its sole purpose was to prevent condensation from dripping on the cluster.  It was not intended to keep the hive warm.
We as humans try to prevent disaster from freak weather patterns.  It is not so easy to do with bees that we do not totally understand why they do what they do.
IMO if you insulate for a freak weather pattern you could be doing something detrimental for a normal weather pattern.

[Live Oak]

When temperatures regularly reach up into the upper 60's and low 70's as they have been doing for the past month or two........with or without insulation, what do you think your bees are doing inside the hives?  What are they doing out side the hives???  In these temperatures, the bees ARE going to forage for pollen and nectar regardless of insulation or anything else you do.  They are foraging because the queen is laying in addition to the elevated hive activity.  In these temperatures, the queen is going to lay eggs and raise brood regardless of insulation or anything else you do short of placing the hive in a freezer. 

Insulating the hives reduces the amount of food resources the hive consumes to maintain internal temperature and helps significantly to stabilize temperature variations thus minimizing the stress on the hive. 

In a much colder climates where the hive goes into cluster and remains in cluster much of or all of the Winter into Spring, the colony consumes much less of its resource, HOWEVER if you take a look at how many beekeepers in very cold climates carry their bees through the Winter, you will find many insulate their hives primarily for the extreme cold temperatures but even still there is bee activity inside the better insulated hives. 

The bees will adjust to the hive environment as needed at both ends of the extreme.  In my case I am insulating for the opposite end of the temperature extremes.  Going from warm sub-tropical temperatures to below freezing in my opinion and experience is very hard on the hive and can inhibit their ability to recluster.  A more stabil and well insulated environment can help to dampen or even completely stabilize the hive environment and significantly reduce stress on the hive cluster and allow them more time to recluster if condition demand. 

[Live Oak]

Here are some FLIR photo's of some of my insulated nucleus colonies and hives.

[djgriggs]

What part of Alabama?   I am in North Alabama and just run 2 deeps with no added insulation.

Hazel Green