Winter bees

[yeoldgit]

Looked through my see through cover board, only about three seams of bees. Ten seams in summer, heavy with stores. Is this usual at this time of year?

 

[madasafish]

Yes.
Sometimes I see no seams of bees: all deep in the combs.
At -8C mostly all last week, I have not looked in a hive for 3 weeks - and that was to feed fondant.

 

[Ian123]

Bee numbers drop and cluster size will enlarge and contract in conjunction with the temperature. What’s 3 frames at -10 could be 5 at plus temperatures as an example.

 

[pargyle]

Looked through my see through cover board, only about three seams of bees. Ten seams in summer, heavy with stores. Is this usual at this time of year?

Not unusual, they will also be compressed into a cluster if you have timber hives, nothing to worry about- some colonies can reduce down to a fraction of their summer size so there really is nothing to worry about - let's face it, there's nothing you can do about it anyway ! ...

Do you have some insulation above the crownboard ?

I use Paynes poly hives with a super of insulation above and in the cold last week (through the clear crown boards) they were down in the middle of the combs. Warmer today and I had a peek and some colonies are active again.

 

[blackcloud]

Perfectly normal and by comparison with some of my weakest hives,doing just fine.
Keep them fed and warm and dont worry

 

[yeoldgit]

Not unusual, they will also be compressed into a cluster if you have timber hives, nothing to worry about- some colonies can reduce down to a fraction of their summer size so there really is nothing to worry about - let's face it, there's nothing you can do about it anyway ! ...

Do you have some insulation above the crownboard ?

I use Paynes poly hives with a super of insulation above and in the cold last week (through the clear crown boards) they were down in the middle of the combs. Warmer today and I had a peek and some colonies are active again.

Yes, super filled with insulation above crown board. Thanks for all the reply’s