How to Prepare Colonies for Winter - How to Overwinter Bees - Prepare Bees for Winter - Episode 1

How to Prepare Colonies for Winter - How to Overwinter Bees - Prepare Bees for Winter - Episode 1
Black Mountain Honey is a No Nonsense Beekeeping Channel.
We are based in North Wales and manage around 150 colonies of bees, plus nucleus colonies.
We produce Great Taste Award winning honey and sell nucleus colonies to members of the public.
Our 6 frame overwintered nucleus colonies sell out very fast every year so early ordering is advisable.
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We supply F1 Mated Buckfast and Jolanta Queens throughout the season. The UK Mated Jolanta Queens are reared using genetics used by the UK's biggest bee farmer - Murray McGregor - and are not available to general public, except through resellers like us! Check out our queens page on our website.
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On our channel you can find information on making splits with swarm cells, making increase with queen cells, grafting larvae, foulbrood and disease inspection, honey extraction and machinery, top tips for beginners, products reviews, instructions and guidance plus much more.
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We cover all beekeeping topics ranging from queen rearing, disease recognition/control, honey extraction, swarm management/collection, how to make splits and much more!
My personal favourite aspects of beekeeping are selecting queens for rearing, rearing queens for mating, making up nucs for overwintering and collecting swarms.
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[@alcroc]

Don't tolerate trolls who use anonymity as a weapon against you. Your videos are great, we all have different views on clearing bees from supers. We have a choice and we care for all of our bees in different ways. Looking forward to your varroa control episode, I am new to this, so your help is really appreciated. Mark. PS. Your F1 Buckfast Queen is a star! She lays for England..... that doesn't sound right but you get my meaning. :-)

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Thanks Mark. I still have the scars! :D Glad you are looking forward to the series and really glad to hear your queen is doing well :D

[@tonyfisher7374]

I'm currently following this series after my 1st hive failed last year .... well almost failed ... this year I'm going into winter with 5 hives so I'm definitely taking the knowledge on board 👌

[@robertburgin1688]

Great video Lawrance really excited for these winter episodes as it's my first year and will definitely be helpful with the feeding side, can't wait!!! O but check your calendar it's only the 27th in England not the 30th haha 😉

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Cheers Robert. Haha! I was a week ahead of myself.

[@honeyhousehold9480]

Again, thanks for this, so interesting to see how different beekeepers do different things. You have to do ‘you’ too, regardless of what others think. You do it rly well & are a great teacher!👍IMHO! Look forward to the rest of this series👌

[@angelamitchell7531]

Really looking forward to this getting ready for winter series, I always second guess myself and need to stop, take a step back, breathe and just do it

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Thanks Angela. Yes - decisive action needed at this time of the year :D

[@manutd19999]

Love you video's! Ive just put my supers back on for them to clean up. Do i take them off now and just leave the brood box and start feeding them? .

[@russdean6598]

Perfect timing again Laurence.. I’d been worried about condensing down, I’m assuming I can use a feeder eke or empty super for space straight onto National deep without crown board as I don’t have ashforth feeders.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yes Russ. Empty super for temporary space is fine then remove and replace with crownboard and feeder

[@KatrinMelite]

Im glad that we dont have to overwinter in my region

[@markbowker3283]

How do you condense from double brood to single brood? Do you move the queen excluder a month before to above the other brood box?

[@shanesmith1844]

Is there a video on how you clear the supers ? I've used a clearer board which has worked well but for next year I wouldn't mind a quicker method .

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yep. Ive done videos on blowers and clearer boards. If you search the channel they will come up

[@shanesmith1844]

@@BlackMountainHoney thanks for the reply . I'll take a look. 👍

[@melaniejenkins109]

That was such a useful video as we are starting to get ours ready for winter. Do you leave any honey for the bees over winter in a super?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

No. We don't. We harvest the honey and feed them syrup for winter

[@jakndaveuk6857]

So do you condense down before the ivy flow? First year beekeeper. Was wondering whether to nadir.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yes. We do. Way before it gets going. We only nadir if we really have to. Try to avoid it as it slows me right down

[@ndneildean]

I enjoy your videos mate when you take the frames of honey away how long can the frames of honey be stored before extraction just out of curiosity. Thanks

[@BlackMountainHoney]

They can be stored for weeks but may start to set in the frames. They will then need reheating back up to hive temp for extraction. Much easier to take them off and extract ASAP

[@ndneildean]

@@BlackMountainHoney thanks mate. Im a beginner so everything is new to me . 👍

[@johnnycorcoran6076]

I have some frames in the supers that aren’t fully capped and I want to get the supers off should I leave the supers on a while longer I could I take the supers off and eat the honey quickly

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Keen on this question, Jonny! :D Im going to do a video just for you! In the meantime, if its 80% capped, then its good to go. Anything less needs testing with a refractometer to be sure

[@johnnycorcoran6076]

@@BlackMountainHoney thanks

[@dickymint4109]

Just thought. You say you don't like 14x12 but go on to sort of say it's better for single brood. So why not look at 10 frame Langstroth going forward? Pain in the butt to run 2 x types especially as you've a lot of investment in your kit but worth a look.

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Problem I have is nucs. Everyone is on national so a move to a Langstroth would be for honey purposes only. Far too deep in the rabbit hole unfortunately

[@dickymint4109]

@@BlackMountainHoney understandable - fortunately I'm new to beekeeping (but have been looking into it for decades!!) and have been able to 'resist' my local associations apparent compulsion to use Nationals lol

[@BlackMountainHoney]

@@dickymint4109 Wise choice. Langstroth are a million times better

[@davidianoliver]

Is there any risk of inducing them to swarm by crowding them in like that or would they just not swarm after the end of August?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Minimal risk at that time of year. Not to say it could never happen but its never happened to me.

[@TH-cl5be]

is it normal for the bees to start becoming angry this time of year, when you do inspections inside the hive

[@BlackMountainHoney]

Yes - when the flows stop they generally become more defensive of their crop

[@andrewmcmullen1388]

My bees are so nice in spring...when the dearth comes, watch out!

[@wickedwinnie]

You didn’t even show how you got the bees out of the supers. If you’re doing an instructional video you should remember that those of us watching are likely new beekeepers. you just cut right away and I have no idea how you got the bees out of the supers down into the big box did you shake them out what did you do?

[@BlackMountainHoney]

I've done various other videos showing how I clear supers. Take a look on the channel 😉

[@BlackMountainHoney]

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