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Where this comes from. The National Bee Unit’s fact sheets on preparing colonies for winter and on disinfecting a hive, its best practice guidelines on feeding sugar and on varroa, and its Starting Right with Bees. Sources at the foot of the page.
What November is for
November is a watching month. The colony is down to its winter size, usually fifteen to twenty thousand workers and the queen, with no drones, living on the stores it put away. 4 Your job is to make sure it can reach them, and to leave it alone otherwise.
Below about 15 °C the bees form a loose cluster, and it tightens as the weather gets colder. Bees inside the cluster make heat with their flight muscles, and the outer bees form an insulating shell. 4 Disturb the cluster and it loses heat quickly, and may struggle to re-form. 1
Check the food without opening up
- Heft every other week, one side and then the other, against the weight you learned in October. 1
- A food check at least once a month. Do not open the hive unless it is warm. 4
- A look inside every 2 to 3 weeks on a warmer day, to make sure the cluster is still next to its food. 2
That last one matters because hefting cannot see where the food is. The cluster eats the stores around it and can be cut off from the rest. A short mild spell makes it worse: the cluster breaks up, and when it re-forms in the cold it may be away from the honey. 1 If it is, move frames of stores next to it, or put fondant over the cluster. 1 2
When you do lift the lid, pick a sunny day with some bees flying, keep it to about 20 seconds, and do not disturb the cluster. 1 Starvation and emergency feeding covers the signs and what to do.
From the outside, Dead bees at the entrance tells the normal from the worrying, and Cleansing flights explains bees flying on a mild winter day.
If a hive is getting light
Fondant, not syrup. Bees cannot process syrup in cold weather. 2 Put a block over the crown board feed hole, or on the top bars inside an eke if it is very cold, and remember that bees need water to use it, which they often get from condensation in the hive. 2 Fondant: when and how to feed it goes through it step by step.
Varroa: plan the winter treatment
Your October mite count decides whether the colony needs a winter oxalic acid treatment. 3 If it does, now is the time to get the product in and read its literature. Oxalic acid and the broodless window covers when it goes on, and the doses.
After a storm
Straps and mouse guards stay on, and the queen excluder stays out. 1 After high winds or heavy rain, walk the apiary: a roof off or a hive over needs putting right that day. Securing hives before a storm and Flood risk and the apiary cover both.
In the shed
- Scrape on a cold day. Propolis is brittle in the cold and comes off far more easily. 5 Hive tools and equipment has the cleaning and disinfecting.
- The records. Medicine records have to be kept for at least five years, even once the colony has gone. 3 November is a good month to check yours are complete. The veterinary medicines record sets out what goes in.
- The wax. Candles, polish and balm for Christmas, and the rules if you sell them: moulding blocks and candles and balms, polish and wraps.
- Next year. Planning next season from your records turns the records into a plan, and Planting for bees in autumn covers early forage.
The short version
- Heft every other week. A food check at least monthly. A quick look inside every 2 to 3 weeks on a warmer day.
- Light hive? Fondant over the cluster, never syrup in the cold.
- Plan the winter oxalic acid from your October count.
- Walk the apiary after every storm.
- Scrape kit on cold days, and bring the medicine records up to date.
October in the apiary comes before this one, and December in the apiary picks up from here.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules change - always check the current guidance on GOV.UK before relying on it.