I once was a true believer in not opening hives in the winter and never did
until recently. By open I mean popping the lid and seeing where they are
through the hole in the inner cover. I was told that was a no-no and my
bees would be traumatized for all time and never make it.

Then one year we had a major winter storm which tipped over one hive. It
got snowed and rained on but I got it back in shape and it made it through
the winter fine. So much for not opening hives.

Since then, as a matter of course I check my hives in late February to see
if the bees are up to the inner cover and need supplemental feed. Then I
added a sugar board over the inner cover and moved it down in March to be
in contact with the bees. That crushed some bees, so this year I put it on
in the late fall right over the bees with the inner cover over the sugar
board. even then, they did take some sugar but not much.

The winter of 2015 seemed to be an anomaly since they ate much more of the
sugar than prior years and last year seemed more normal. Not this year.

We have had major "global warming" here in the Maine with many days
starting out at -20F and not making it much above 10F for a couple of
weeks.Now we are in our "January thaw" (almost- since it is only in the mid
40s and they are still clustered and only a few are flying) so I decided to
check my bees early and glad I did. I had a feeling that the cold did not
allow much movement latterly so they were eating their way up and not
sideways, and I appear to be right. One hive had finished off half of the
sugar board and the other had a decent start.

So I made up another board for each and will put it over the current board
this afternoon to help them along. So opening hives in the winter may be
discouraged but I have found it necessary

My boards next winter will be deeper and have 2x the sugar.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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