Wintering Bees with Bruce White

Video Captions

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wintering bees you know is very
important one of the first observation

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you can make when you go to an apiary is
just look at the hive entrance in winter

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or any time of the year you can tell the
strength of the colony by the number of

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bees at the entrance in the case of this
colony you can see that the bees are

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right across the hive entrance which
indicates that all the brood frames are

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probably covered with bees so
numerically inside this hive there are a

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lot of bees by the activity at the
entrance you can also observe the amount

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of nectar going in and the amount of
pollen going in by pollen on the bees

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legs in the case of this colony
compared to the previous colony you can

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see there’s hardly any bees out the
front at all just an odd one coming out

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and this is a small entrance and is
only that wide so this would indicate

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there are not a lot of bees in this
colony going into winter in winter you

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know it’s extremely important that bees
are kept in the sun certainly not in the

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shade there is a disease called Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae and

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if bees are kept in the shade the bees
are more prone to that disease it

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affects their intestine and they can’t
digest food properly and the hive can

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quickly quickly lose feel bees in
winter if it’s in the shade the other

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important things as far as hives go and
the location is that the entrance should

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slope
should slope forward so if you’ve got a

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level if the entrance slopes forward you
know that’s a big advantage because if

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there’s any water gets in the entrance
and the entrance is shut out if the

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hive’s slightly backwards water can get in
there and it means the hive’s damp

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all winter so always have your entrances
slightly sloped forward the other

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important thing is at the entrance
you know the bees need free flight in in

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this case the hives on a concrete stand
but not everyone’s got concrete stands

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the way to overcome that is to get a
piece of core flute and often old real

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estate signs are handy and that lasts
for two or three years and you place

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that at the entrance like that so that
stops grass growing up the front of the

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entrance you don’t have to mow as close to
it and it’s temperature neutral so the

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bees can land on it it’s not going to
get hot it’s not going to get cold so

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that’s well worth doing when you’re
sighting bees for winter or any time of the

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year it’s also equally important to have
a strap on the hive if you don’t have a

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strap on the hive it can get bumped over
in winter and any time you don’t need to

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have the strap overly tight as long as
it holds the boxes together so that’s

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called an Emlock hive fastener I just touched it with one finger

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shut it if I was going to shift the bees
or move them I’d have it a lot tighter

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the wood moves during the winter or any
time after rain so you don’t need to

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strap that tight when you want to
inspect the hives for winter yeah it’s

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important to put the strap at the front
of the hive like so because

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you’re not going to stand there you need the smoker going properly and you need to smoke the

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entrance of the colony so by smoking the
entrance of the colony I’m telling the

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guard bees someone’s going to come use
the hive tool to take the lid off I lift

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the lid up a puff a few puffs of smoke
under it put the lid back on so the

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smoke going from the top to the bottom
to make the bees more docile

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you don’t want to open hives in winter
to inspect them yah when the weather’s

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really cold the other thing that I would
do is to feel the weight of the hive

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probably better the hive’s of strap on it
so you just get the hive by the back

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hand hole and lift it up like that and
that tells you the weight of the hive so

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before you open it you’ve got an idea as
to how much honey is stored on the hive

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I now remove the lid and put the lid at
the back of the colony because I’m down

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to stand at the back of the colony
I work it from the side I then puff

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smoke over all the frames and I look at
how many bees are on the frames in the

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top box which is called the super so I
can get the frame out and the second one

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from the wall is used the easiest one to
take out I take that frame out and I

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examine it in the case of this frame
there’s a few bees on it but it’s not

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covered with bees they’re stored honey
there and there’s empty cells and a

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little bit of nectar in there and no
pollen at all I can then remove this box

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to see what’s in the box underneath so
I’ll give it another puff and just to

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show you that this box has not got very
many bees in it at all so going into

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winter this box needs to be removed
because bees like warmth and they

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incubate their young at 34 degrees Celsius
so the easier you can make that happen

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the better particularly in coastal areas
because bees will have brood all winter in

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inland areas they may not have any brood
in the hive at all and they don’t have

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to maintain the temperature at 34
degrees Celsius only at 20 degrees

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Celsius to keep themselves warm so this
box yeah it needs to be taken away

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because there’s not very many bees in it
but

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there’s some honey and nectar so just put
that to the back at this stage I will

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puff it again to keep the bees under
control and we look at this box which is

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also called a super because it’s above
the bottom box with puff all over it and

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it’s important to puff over the whole
box and we can have a look at these

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frames as well and see what’s in here

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and we find a frame you know with a lot
more honey on it compared to the one at

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the top end you know a few more bees but
not not a lot of bees so take this

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box off hold it up on this edge
that’s much heavier by the weight and

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you can see there’s bees in it but not
a huge number of bees and not all the

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frames are covered with bees that to the
back we now look at the brood nest where

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the Queen will be so we remove the Queen
excluder from the colony and we check

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there’s no Queen on the Queen excluder
there’s no Queen and we put the Queen

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excluder upside down on there we then
smoke across the colony and we look at

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the frames here and all the frames in
this bottom box

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have got bees on them we then remove a
frame and the second one from the walls

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often the easiest one to remove careful
not to squash anything then we look at

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this and we find that’s a perfect frame
of protein or pollen so pollen is stored

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in that frame there which please need we
notice there’s a male bee there a drone

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so that’s a good sign that the colony is
still reasonably prosperous because in

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winter they often
throw drones out so you won’t see any

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drones I’ll just put this frame to one
side on the concrete thing and proceed

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to look at this colony so we notice here
that there’s a lot of pollen

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there’s brood in fact there’s male brood
there which is drone brood

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that’s worker brood there and the whole
frame is covered with bees so that’s

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what I call you know frame covered with
bees and on this side we’ve got an

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excellent frame of sealed brood so this
hive is going into winter in what I’d

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call good condition

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so I’ll put that frame back in there and
I’ll look at the next frame and we see

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it’s also well covered with bees so it’s
a good idea to do a brood inspection

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because we know the queen’s here because of the brood so we’ve got to shake the

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bees off into the box off the frame so
you can see most of the cells or all the

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cells and check for any abnormal brood
so you need to do that this time of the

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year or coming into winter for every
brood frame and check there’s no disease

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it’s no good just doing one or two
frames so we slowly work across now that

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we’ve got one frame out and I don’t need
to find the queen because I know the

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queen’s here because there’s brood present
so I check all the brood to make sure

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it’s healthy

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and I noticed there’s a lot of stored
pollen and really good brood so this

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hive is going into winter you know in
good condition with some stored honey

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there but probably you’ll see what this
frame on the side is it’s a frame of

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honey because I can feel the weight of
it so that’s a good frame of honey you

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know for stores for the bees in the
brood box to use the frame I took out

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was second from the wall on this side so
there’s nothing to stop me

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by putting it second on the
wall on this side now it’s important to

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control small hive beetle and the best
thing to control small hive beetle is

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Apithor so this is an Apithor and it’s a
harbourage like that

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that has got a chemical inside it that
the bees can’t get to and the chemical’s

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not volatile so it doesn’t get into
honey or wax in the hive and it can go

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on the bottom board and in the bottom of
the colony so I’m not sure if I can get

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it in this one

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so … so I’m going to remove
some frames to put this in the in the

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bottom

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so everything you do with bees you do
deliberately and you’re very much like

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unlikely to get stung so that that slips
in the bottom like so and then the

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frames can go back into the colony so
that’ll protect that hive from small

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hide beetle
should only be left in for a month and

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then can be removed so having done that
I then put the queen excluder on

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so I put the Queen excluder back on
there like that now because this hive is

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three boxes high and there’s not many
bees in the top two boxes but there’s

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plenty of honey there so for this hive
this hive for winter is better I can put a

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mat on it so this is a mat so it can be
carpet or it can be vinyl like this

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material plastic your material and I put
that there

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that’s going to have the effect of
keeping this colony warm because the

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heats going to be retained mainly in the
bottom box and not go up to the supers

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it’s important that the bees get round
the edge of the mat so if the bees can

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get around the edge of the mat they can
still get up into the top boxes and any

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honey that’s up in the top box here the
bees get access to and can take it down

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to the bottom box or eat it
if this wasn’t here the whole hive has

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got to be kept warm by having this here
it acts as a barrier and keeps the heat

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predominantly where the brood is and I
mentioned before 34 degrees is the brood

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temperature so I can then put these
boxes back on and leave the mat there

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and in this case because there was no
bees in the top box it needn’t be there

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even though there was honey in it so I
can put this hive back as a double hive

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and it would winter much better than if
it was left as a three-decker or

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alternatively if I didn’t want to take
this top box off

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and I had a mat on the hive I can leave
that top box on and the bees will

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control any pests and parasites that
make it into a box that’s taken off if a

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box is taken off
there’s pests that can get into the comb

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particularly wax moth that can destroy the
comb when the weather’s a bit warmer

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when the weather warms up or even this
time of the year so it’s quite

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acceptable to leave all your supers on
your hive but put a mat in now if these

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frames were covered with bees I’ll put
the mat on the second box so I’d pick it

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up from here and I put on the second box
like so and put the super’ on the top

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now at this time of the year there were
three boxes of bees there I could put

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the mat under lid just like that and
keep that like that because all the

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frames were covered with bees if the
population declines you can put the mat

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you know down in the second box there’s
no need to open hives in winter if you

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don’t have to so if you see good flight
you feel the weight of the hive there’s

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enough honey on it you can just leave it
and not open it up but never open hives

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up on cold windy days in winter because
it can do a lot of damage to the colony

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I’ll just mention one other thing take
this box again so if I had a

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hive that was only a single hive which
meant you know didn’t have a big

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population on it I could what I call
wrap the hive this is commonly done

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you know on the table ends and where areas are quite cold so I get a mat like this

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and if there’s only bees on say three
frames I slide the mat down between the

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three frames I fold it over fold it over
like that

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and push the edge
down there and these other

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frames you have got no bees on them
that’s what we call wrapping so keeps

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these three frames here now nice
and warm where the brood and the queen

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is and the bees can still get access to
these other frames if they had honey or

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something like that in but that’s only
when you’ve got really weak hives so it

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can mean the difference between a hive
surviving or not surviving because

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you’re keeping the colony and the
cluster warmer than it normally would be

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because of the size of the cavity

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so that’s how I would you know winter bees
sunny positions entrance not full covered

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with grass or anything like that hives
sloping forward so any moisture runs out

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check the weight of the hive that
there’s enough honey on it if there’s

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not enough honey on it you need to feed
the hive and that’s a whole different

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subject if you’re going to feed bees in winter you need to feed thick sugar syrup

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or just plain white sugar that’s been
moist on a mat under the lid you don’t

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feed thin sugar syrup but that’s the
topic for another day so if a colony is

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numerically weak and where I you know
did the wrapping you can reduce the

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entrance by blocking the entrance up so
the bees have got a reduced entrance

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so you can use a piece of timber like
that and slide it in the entrance like

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that and then there’s only that much
entrance some shutters that are on hives

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have got slots on them that made the
entrance really small so bees can only

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go in about three or four at a time so
reducing the entrance

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you know also helps keep the colony warm
in winter and when spring and summer

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comes you can take the chock away and
make the entrance larger so in this hive

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you know the brood was at all stages as
uncap cells about larvae and eggs in

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them and the other is capped brood so
that means that there’s going to be a

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continuation of brood in this colony
going through winter because it’s on the

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coast inland you’ve often find no
brood in the hive but the Queen still

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leave she just stopped laying she
hibernates in which case the colony will

0:21:00.650,0:21:05.800
be docile because the Queen’s present
even if there’s no brood

0:21:08.660,0:21:13.830
so now I’m putting the colony back
together it’s important not to squash

0:21:13.830,0:21:19.250
any bees so you got to be careful what
you do

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okay so now putting the colony back
together again the strap it doesn’t have

0:21:47.940,0:21:54.420
to be you know tight because it’s not
being shifted anywhere as long as it

0:21:54.420,0:22:00.210
holds together like that I was gonna
shift the colony I’d have it really

0:22:00.210,0:22:17.929
tight that’s to push really hard to get the strap tight

0:22:17.929,0:22:27.299
you

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