September Is Not the End of the Beekeeping Season
Why the work you do now can decide whether your colonies reach spring...
Every autumn, the same advice begins to circulate: the beekeeping season is almost over, the honey has been taken off, and it is time to close the hive and leave the bees alone until spring.
That may sound reassuring, but it is poor advice.
September is not the end of the beekeeping season. It is one of the most important - and potentially dangerous - months in the beekeeping year. What happens inside the hive now will determine whether the colony goes into winter healthy, adequately fed and properly organised, or enters it with a failing queen, disease, too few stores or a damaging varroa burden.
Once cold weather arrives, our opportunities to correct those problems become very limited. The sensible approach is therefore not to keep opening colonies throughout winter, but to carry out one purposeful, thorough autumn assessment while the weather is still suitable. Put right what needs attention, prepare the hive properly and only then reduce disturbance.
Winter preparation starts with bee health...
Before thinking about feeders, mouse guards or insulation, establish whether the colony is healthy enough to overwinter.Choose a warm, calm day and work methodically. You do not necessarily need to find the queen if the evidence tells you she is present and laying, but you do need to assess her performance. Look for eggs and larvae of different ages, and for a reasonably compact brood pattern appropriate to the time of year and the colony's strength.
A reducing brood nest in September is normal. A failing pattern is not. Scattered worker brood, excessive missed cells, multiple eggs, or drone brood appearing in the middle of worker comb all deserve investigation. Do not mistake a colony becoming smaller for winter with a colony that is queenless, headed by a failing queen or developing laying workers.
Look carefully at the brood itself. Check uncapped larvae as well as sealed brood. Watch for discoloured, twisted, sunken or perforated cells; abnormal larvae; chalkbrood; sacbrood; deformed wings; and anything else that does not look or smell right. Assess the adult population, temperament, pollen reserves and the balance between bees, brood and stores. Record what you find.
If you suspect European foulbrood or American foulbrood, stop moving combs or equipment between colonies and contact your local Seasonal Bee Inspector through the National Bee Unit. Autumn tidying must never spread a potentially notifiable disease around the apiary.Weak colonies also require an honest decision. Two small, doubtful colonies left separately do not become stronger simply because their roofs have been strapped down. Where disease has been ruled out and the timing and conditions are suitable, uniting may give the bees a much better chance than asking two weak units to survive alone.
Varroa: use the colony, not the calendar...
Varroa cannot be treated as an afterthought. The bees being produced in late summer and autumn must live far longer than summer workers. If they are damaged by mites and the viruses mites transmit while developing, the colony can appear acceptable in September and then collapse later in autumn or winter.
Our own main treatment is often carried out toward the end of September or during October, when the supers are off, the weather is changing and the period in which late supersedure is likely has largely passed. But that timing is a management decision supported by monitoring; it is not a rule that every beekeeper should copy regardless of mite level.
Monitor, assess risk and act when the colony requires it. If mite levels are already damaging the winter-bee population, waiting for a preferred date on the calendar is waiting too long. Choose only a UK-authorised treatment, follow its current label exactly, observe its temperature limits and treatment duration, and keep a medicine record. Some treatments need warm conditions; others are most effective when little or no sealed brood is present. Some can also reduce syrup uptake, so feeding and treatment need to be coordinated in accordance with the label. The product and the condition of the colony must determine the timing.
Why I prefer double brood for winter...
I am not a great fan of brood-and-a-half. I prefer the simplicity and flexibility of double brood. Frames are interchangeable, inspections are easier to interpret and, with sensible organisation, the upper box can become a substantial reserve of winter food.Once the honey supers have been removed, carry out the full health assessment in the main brood box. Work from one side and organise the box carefully:
1. Place the dummy board at the outside.
2. Put in a good frame of stores.
3. Replace the brood frames together, keeping them in their original order and orientation.
4. Place the remaining store frames on the other side of the brood nest.
The purpose is not to redesign the brood nest or scatter brood around the hive. It is to keep the brood compact while giving the colony accessible stores on both sides. Avoid prolonged inspections, and do not leave brood exposed while you work. Add the second brood box above, using sound, preferably drawn comb, and place a large rapid feeder over it—something such as a UK square feeder works well. Do not leave a queen excluder between the two brood boxes. In winter, the cluster must be able to move upwards together; an excluder can leave the queen trapped below as the workers move towards food.
Feed strong autumn syrup while conditions are warm enough for the bees to take it down and process it. Around 15 kilograms of prepared syrup may be a useful starting quantity for a colony that already has reasonable stores, but it is not a guaranteed ration and it should not be treated as one. The amount required depends on the concentration of the feed, hive type, colony size, existing honey, local forage and the length and severity of winter. Feed, reassess the weight and continue until the colony has the reserves it needs or stops taking syrup.
Large feeders are helpful because they allow the colony to move a useful quantity quickly and reduce the number of visits. Refill calmly. There is normally no need for smoke merely to top up a feeder, and unnecessary smoke or dismantling only disrupts the colony and can encourage robbing. Keep syrup inside the hive, avoid spillages and reduce entrances where wasps or robbing bees are a problem.
The bees will normally store much of this feed in the upper box. As winter progresses, the cluster uses the stores immediately around it and generally moves upward into the warmer upper box and its food reserve. Stores in the lower box must still be positioned so that the colony is not forced to cross a large area of empty comb in cold weather. Bees can starve with food only a few inches away if the cluster cannot safely reach it, so never assume that they will follow a perfectly predictable route.
Heft the hive from the same point each time and learn what properly provisioned colonies feel like in your own equipment. Continue weight checks through winter without opening the hive. If stores become doubtful, fondant placed directly above the cluster is usually more accessible than food at the far side of a cold box.
In spring, once the weather permits a proper inspection, the lower box can be removed if it is genuinely empty of brood and surplus to requirements. The relatively clean upper brood box can then be placed onto a clean floor. Do not remove the lower box merely because the calendar says spring has arrived: first confirm where the queen and brood actually are.
Protein matters as well as sugar...
Winter feeding discussions tend to focus entirely on carbohydrates. Honey or stored syrup provides the energy needed for clustering, heat production and normal activity, but brood rearing also depends on protein and other nutrients obtained principally from pollen.
In many parts of the UK, bees can fly during mild spells for much of the winter. Queens may continue laying at a low level, pause only briefly, or restart during a mild period; there is no single pattern for every colony or every region. That is why autumn pollen reserves matter. A colony expected to rear brood must have the nutritional resources to support its nurse bees and larvae.
In our own colonies, once the autumn syrup has been taken down, we normally add a suitable protein supplement above the brood nest. This supports the nurse bees and encourages a final useful period of brood rearing, helping the colony produce well-nourished, long-lived winter bees. It should only be done in a healthy, queenright colony with adequate carbohydrate stores and varroa under control. Encouraging additional brood while mite pressure remains high would simply give varroa more brood in which to reproduce and could undermine the very winter bees we are trying to strengthen.
During the health inspection, note whether there is pollen or bee bread around the brood nest and whether late forage is available locally. Ivy can be extremely valuable, but it should not simply be assumed that every colony in every apiary will gather enough. Protein supplements are not an automatic answer for all colonies: they can stimulate brood rearing, and their use should be deliberate, hygienic and based on need rather than routine.
Then - and only then - leave them in peace...
There is a good principle hidden inside the advice to leave bees alone: colonies should not be repeatedly dismantled once winter has begun. But non-intervention is only good husbandry after the essential intervention has been completed.
Before closing a hive for winter, be able to answer these questions:
Is the colony healthy and queenright?
Is the brood pattern appropriate, with no unexplained drone laying or signs of disease?
Has varroa been monitored and, where necessary, treated early enough to protect the winter bees?
Are there sufficient accessible carbohydrate stores?
Are pollen reserves and late forage adequate for continuing or renewed brood rearing?
Is the colony strong enough to winter, or should it be united?Is the hive dry, stable and secure?
Are mouse and woodpecker protections in place where required?
Can I monitor its weight and entrance through winter without opening it?
Only when those questions have satisfactory answers is it time to reduce disturbance. The beekeeping season does not finish when the supers come off. September is the bridge between the honey-producing colony of summer and the long-lived colony that must survive winter and raise the first bees of spring. Cross that bridge carelessly and there may be little left to manage in April. Cross it well, and the colony begins the new season from strength. That is not interfering with the bees. It is responsible beekeeping.
Editorial references:
National Bee Unit: Preparing Your Hives for Winter
National Bee Unit: Managing Varroa
National Bee Unit: Feeding Bees - Sugar
Veterinary Medicines Directorate: Product Information Database
Always use the current product label and Veterinary Medicines Directorate guidance when selecting and applying a bee medicine.