As soon as the main bribe is completed and shops are removed from the hives, preparations for the wintering of bees immediately begin. The sooner you take care of this, the easier it is for bee colonies to winter, the less they will die, the sooner they will “take wing” in the spring and start harvesting honey again.
First of all, immediately after the end of the main bribe, conduct a detailed audit of each bee family and find out what condition it is in. Do not let an outwardly strong family fool you: if there are no brood and testicles in the combs, then most likely she was left without a uterus. Check this: put for a couple of days in the middle of the nest of honeycombs with young larvae and testes. Then inspect it, and if it shows up inherent queen cells - your suspicions were confirmed.
In autumn, large nests are no longer needed, because by the end of the main bribe, the number of working bees is much less than at the beginning. First of all, you need to remove the honeycomb, on which there is little honey. If there are young larvae on them, they need to be moved to the edge of the nest to prevent the uterus from brooding.
The preparation of bees for wintering is also in the so-called autumn building. It eliminates the contradiction: in the fall, the laying of eggs by the uterus is reduced, and a good wintering of the family is a large proportion of young "autumn" bees in it. You can increase the autumn laying of eggs by replacing the old uterus with the young in the family. Moreover, this process must be started at the very start of the main bribe, so that by the second half the family already had a young womb. It was during this period that it mated with drones, which are still present in sufficient quantities. At the end of the main bribe, they will all be expelled by bees from the hives. In families with young uterus, eggs are laid well in the fall. Autumn feeding of bees and warming of nests of families from above and on the sides also contribute to this.
Advising how to prepare bees for wintering, experienced beekeepers pay attention to the sweet secretions that appear on the leaves of some trees and shrubs - the paddy. Often it is collected and brought to the hive by the bees when the main bribe is completed. This is how honeydew honey is formed, which in winter often destroys entire bee families. To avoid this, it is necessary to conduct a thorough study of the quality of honey before wintering. The analysis is carried out by mixing in a test tube one part of honey and distilled water, adding two parts of transparent lime water to them and heating the solution to a boil. If flakes precipitate in it, honeydew is detected. Such honeycombs must be removed from the nest, they must be replaced with floral honey, which was harvested at the beginning of the main bribe.
The final preparation for the wintering of bees is carried out after breeding the bulk of the brood. The number of frames in the nest is determined based on the number of bees. Each honeycomb must contain at least 2 kg of sealed honey. Warming the nests is necessary considering the temperature of the winter hive: the bees can suffer from both undercooling and overheating. Letters should be protected by barriers from mice with cutouts sufficient for free passage of bees.
Preparation for bees hibernation ends with their placement in special winter houses, where the temperature is in the range +4 ... + 6, and air humidity - 80-85%. This becomes especially important if the region is "famous" for the harsh climatic conditions. The winter hut is prepared in summer and autumn, airing, drying, destroying mold, warming, etc. The room must be ventilated, as the bees emit water vapor and carbon dioxide.
The fact that the preparation for the wintering of the bees was successful will be evidenced in the winter by a quiet and even hum in the hives. If you hear dissatisfied noise - the room is cold or excessively warm, not enough fresh air or damp. Sometimes tapping on one or another hive (just do not abuse it), hear a friendly, quickly subsiding echo. This is a good sign: a family with a womb and winters safely.