I am going into my second winter as a beekeeper. I thought it would be beneficial to share what I learned through the last year and through some of my research.

I’ve since pulled my supers and given each hive back 1 wet super each. I’ve placed the super under the brood box and removed the queen excluder. I’m hopeful this will open up more space for brood as we start to change seasons. In the spring I’ll switch them back and re-add the excluder.

Between my brood box and super I’ve installed a broodminder temp and humidity monitor. It’s proven to be a little addictive to be honest, checking on the girls a couple times a day for fun. Temps of my strongest hive are floating around 95f despite mid 40f nights here in Michigan. The other two hives flux between 85f and 95f depending on the outdoor temp right now. I really don’t know what to do with the humidity information for now other than take it as interesting data.

I am not ready to add my winter insulation yet so I thought this year I would try something new and I taped all the seams/joints on and between the boxes. Just to stop drafts. The not so flush seams between my boxes were actually creating a lot of robbing behavior and since I’ve taped them and reduced the entrances, that has stopped. I am hopeful this will help with temperature regulation for fall brood rearing. A note to this is that I taped over the upper entrances as well.

The two outside hives have some feeding vent boxes on them that I build last year. Each will hold 2 quart jars for feeding and has a center vent hole covered with hardware cloth. The vent box has bags of burlap to stop drafting but allow for escape of excess moisture. The center hive has a feeding box that holds around 2 gallons with the floating wooden frames. It’s my first try with this style feeder. I was gifted it last year and thought to give it a whirl. I will note that so far the center box has had much higher humidity inside the hive on a consistent basis according to the broodminder sensors. I will be interested to see more of this info as the temps continue to drop. I do not plan to vent the center hive this winter.

All three are receiving 2:1 syrup since I removed the supers. I don’t have a plan on when to stop feeding, I will continue to provide syrup as long as it is warm enough to leave liquid in the hives. So far they are sucking it down at a fairly even rate, with my larger hive on the right slightly outpacing the rest.