Autumn Management

David MacFawn

Autumn preparations are frequently deemed the most critical of any season. Beginning in September and continuing through December, Autumn is when preparations are made for colony overwintering. How well your colonies are prepared in Autumn will determine, to a great extent, how productive they are the following Spring.

In South Carolina, a late colony split should be made no later than the first week of August. Using all drawn comb is preferable. Most locations do not have a strong Autumn nectar flow to assist in drawing out comb. If enough drawn comb is not in the hive, there will not be sufficient comb space to store adequate honey/carbohydrate to get the colony through until the Spring nectar flow.

The colony should be requeened no later than September 1 in South Carolina, if the colony does not have a young queen (less than one-year-old), going into Winter. By requeening in August, the new queen has enough time to achieve four to five frames of Winter worker bees (two brood cycles). November and December are typically the lowest brood levels during the year, sometimes even reaching a broodless period. A young queen will also help minimize swarming next Spring and helps reduce queen failure during heavy colony build-up in the months of February and March.

Feeding and brood assessment should occur from August through September. If the colony does not have enough bees in August, feed the colony sugar syrup to stimulate brood development. Internal feeding should be used to prevent robbing the colony; also, use entrance reducers.

Early in September for South Carolina, if the colony does not have at least 50 to 60 pounds of honey (medium feed chamber and honey stored in the brood chamber), the colony must be fed. Consult your local bee association on how much honey to have on the hive for Winter. In South Carolina, the bees begin to store sugar syrup strategically in the colony from mid-September through October. This results in continuous storage of honey in the colony.

However, when it gets colder, usually after October, the bees will stop taking the feed. They will leave sugar syrup in the feeder and no longer store it in the colony.

As the Winter progresses, the bees move vertically through the equipment stack consuming honey until they reach the inner cover. If the bees use all their stored honey, they will huddle under a pail feeder placed on top of an inner cover to access sugar syrup (carbohydrates).

In addition to honey, storage for pollen in the brood chamber, typically two frames (frames two and nine in a fully filled ten-frame brood chamber) will allow the bees to build up from December until around the first of February. This is when the maples bloom in South Carolina, which is usually a good early bloom.

Be aware, in some locations, there are pollen dearth’s in the Autumn, which may impact Winter bee development. If enough honey or pollen is not available in the hive, the colony should be fed sugar syrup or pollen/substitute. It takes honey and pollen to raise young bees.

Weak colonies are defined as ones that do not have at least brood (four frames in South Carolina), sufficient honey stores and sufficient pollen stores. The old rule of thumb was to combine a weak colony with a strong colony, supposedly resulting in a strong colony. The weak queen was killed, and the colonies were inspected to ensure they were disease-free. Combining two weak colonies was not recommended.

However, this old rule of thumb has been replaced in favor of culling weak colonies in Autumn. This change in approach is based on the difficulty in detecting diseases and viral infections, as well as the costs of labor, equipment and feed to sustain a weak colony over Winter. It makes little sense to save a weak colony if it leads to further illness or compromises other viable colonies. However, with this said, a lot of beekeepers put weak colonies in a nurse yard and hope for the best.

During colder months, assemble new equipment and repair older equipment. Prime and paint new unpainted woodenware with two coats of high-quality paint. Old equipment in need of repair and painting should be swapped out of the field to a location accessible to be worked on in the November and December time frame. It is less expensive to maintain your existing equipment than to purchase, assemble, prime and paint new equipment. New equipment that is procured and assembled may be determined by your colony growth plan and sales and marketing plan. In South Carolina’s high humidity, I have found equipment assembled with high-quality waterproof glue and nails and painted with a coat of high-quality primer and at least two coats of good quality paint will last about ten years prior to refurbishment.

Develop a colony growth plan, plus a sales and marketing plan. These plans identify existing equipment and resources and any new equipment that will be required for replacement or growth. Necessary new bee yards for the upcoming season should be secured based on your colony growth plan and sales and marketing plans. Financial analysis numbers should be analyzed to determine if you can cover your costs with the number of colonies and their honey production in an outyard. If pollinating, you need to first analyze expenditures to determine pollination rental rates to ensure a reasonable return. Then pollination contracts and fee structures can be offered to interested parties. For more information refer to my book: https://outskirtspress.com/BeekeepingTipsandTechniquesfortheSoutheastUnitedStatesBeekeepingFinance

Varroa mite levels, having been monitored throughout the Summer, should be checked again in August and also in October and November. Refer to Randy Oliver’s site: www.scientificbeekeeping.com/ for more information on what are acceptable levels. In Autumn, the queen will reduce her egg-laying, resulting in an increased number of Varroa mites becoming phoretic (on the bees and feeding) or dispersal (Varroa on the bees and not feeding) rather than in the brood. This will result in higher mite levels but more accurate mite readings. Treating for Varroa mites should be considered based on the mite levels.

Mite levels can be determined using either the sugar roll or alcohol wash methods. Sticky boards are no longer considered reliable for obtaining accurate mite levels as too many factors come into play when assessing various sized colonies at different times of the year. Usually, November and December are the queen’s lowest laying time and an excellent time to treat. Chemical treatment decisions should be made with respect to temperatures in your area.

In South Carolina, the colony will need four to five frames of Winter bees to get it through the Winter until late March or early April. Treating as necessary in August will ensure healthy nurse bees which will help raise healthy Winter bees. Winter bees will start emerging at the end of August to the first part of September. Winter bees have more fat/Vitellogenin in their bodies that enable them to overwinter better. Also, the Winter bees are confined and do not forage as much which aids in their longevity.

If you need to feed in the Winter or Spring, feed continuously until the nectar flow starts. I prefer to use pail feeders inverted over the oval porter bees escape hole in the inner cover. If needed, the bees can huddle under the pail feeder. Other feeders may have an issue where the bees cannot access the syrup when they are clustered in cold weather.

In the Fall, if not done previously during the dearth period, reduce your entrances with an entrance reducer to minimize robbing and yellow jacket problems. Yellow jackets will invade weak colonies and kill them. Also, queen excluders need to come off as they can prevent the queen from moving up with the cluster.

Storing frames is also a concern. There are two factors to consider when storing frames of drawn comb. Brood frames will be affected by wax moths. To store brood frames, place them in a plastic bag and freeze them for several days. The wax moths are after the dark brood section of the comb. Clear white superframes are typically left alone by wax moths. Frames with foundation are rarely affected by wax moths. I stack supers with drawn comb at 90 degrees so that light and cold weather gets to the frames. Wax moth larvae are killed when it gets to freezing temperatures, especially if they are outside of the cluster. A final consideration is extra equipment. Any extra equipment should be removed from the hive due to Small Hive Beetles (SHB), especially if it is a weak colony. This is due to the bees not being able to care for the empty space where SHB can hide. As mentioned earlier, if it is a weak colony, consider culling.

Autumn colony management will determine your success the following Spring to a great extent. In much of the southeast, the colonies should be fed to ensure at least 50 to 60 pounds of honey in the combined brood and feed chambers. Weak colonies should be culled and not combined. Colonies should be assessed for Varroa and treated if necessary. The colonies should go into Winter with a young vigorous queen. A colony growth plan and sales and marketing plans should be developed to direct your tasks and efforts.

David MacFawn (dmacfawn@aol.com) is an Eastern Apiculture Society Master Beekeeper and a North Carolina Master Craftsman beekeeper living in the Columbia, South Carolina, area. He is the author of three books:

Beekeeping Tips and Techniques for the Southeast United States, Beekeeping Finance, published by Outskirts Press
Applied Beekeeping in the United States, published by Outskirts Press
Getting the Best from Your Bees, published by Outskirts Press