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Where this comes from. The National Bee Unit’s fact sheet on preparing colonies for winter, reissued in September 2026, its best practice guideline on feeding sugar, reissued in October 2026, and its Starting Right with Bees. Sources at the foot of the page. Each job links to the guide that goes into it properly.
What September is for
Getting ready for winter starts once the last honey crop is off, often with a varroa treatment, normally from early to mid August. Where the bees work a late flow, heather or Himalayan balsam, it is later. 1 By September the job is to check each colony for six things: enough food, enough bees, a queen, no disease, no pests, and a sound hive. 1
Varroa first
Varroa numbers usually peak in late summer. The winter bees are being reared in late August and early September, and if they are heavily infested as they develop, they live shorter lives, which can cost the colony the winter. A treatment applied too late kills the mites but cannot undo the damage already done to those bees. 1
No varroa treatment may go on while the honey supers are on, so judge when to take them off. Keep monitoring the mite level: it tells you when to treat. 1 Varroa treatment after the honey covers it.
Stores
As a rule, a colony wants about 20 kg of honey in the autumn. 1 Count the frames of capped honey, or heft the hive once you have learned what the weights feel like: 1
- A full British Standard brood frame holds about 2.3 kg.
- A full super frame holds about 1.2 kg, and a full super at least 12 kg.
- So a full super and three brood frames of honey should be enough on their own.
Make up any shortfall with thick syrup, 1 kg of white granulated sugar to 630 ml of water. 1 September is a good month for it in many parts of the UK. Feed too early and the bees go on rearing brood and eat more of their stores. 2
Do not leave it late. Beyond the middle of October the bees may not be able to process syrup and store it properly, and a colony still short at the end of October goes onto fondant. 1 Feeding for winter works out the amounts.
Feeding sets off robbing, especially in late summer. Feed in the evening, clean up spills straight away, 1 and narrow the entrances. 2 Wasps and robbing covers the rest.
Enough bees
The queen stops laying in winter, so the bees a colony goes in with are the bees it has. A colony with fewer than 9,000 bees, about three full brood frames of them, has a poor chance of surviving. The rule of thumb is at least five standard brood frames covered in bees. 1 3
Combine anything smaller with another colony, as long as both are free of disease. Find out first why it is small: a weak colony can pass hidden disease to a strong one. 1 Uniting colonies shows how.
A queen
A queenless colony has a poor chance of getting through the winter. Combine it with another, or requeen it with a young mated queen if it is not too late in the season. 1
A young queen is better: she is less likely to die or turn drone layer, and lays later into the season. If yours is more than two or three years old, think about requeening after the summer harvest. 1
Disease
Check every colony for signs of brood and adult bee disease, and deal with what you find. If you find or suspect European or American foulbrood, you must tell the National Bee Unit straight away, and you must not cull the colony yourself. Do not combine a diseased colony with another. 1 How to inspect a hive covers what to look for.
The hive, before the weather turns
- Check the roofs: no rain may get in. Hives off the ground on stands, tilted very slightly forward so condensation runs out of the entrance. 1
- Strap hives to their stands, so the wind cannot take the roofs. 1
- Mouse guards on: mice nest in hives over winter and can kill a colony. 1
- Take out the queen excluder, so the cluster cannot move up through it after food and leave the queen behind. 1
Winter protection and Securing hives before a storm go further, and October in the apiary picks up from here.
The short version
- Varroa: the winter bees are being reared now. Supers off, and treat if the count says so.
- Stores: about 20 kg. Make up the rest with thick syrup, 1 kg of sugar to 630 ml of water, before mid October.
- Bees: at least five brood frames covered. Combine smaller colonies if both are healthy.
- A queen, preferably young. Requeen or combine a queenless colony.
- No disease. Foulbrood is reported, not culled.
- Roof sound, hive strapped, mouse guard on, excluder out.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules change - always check the current guidance on GOV.UK before relying on it.