In this solo beekeeping video, the presenter enters a Carpathian bee colony in North Wales during mid‑January to demonstrate why opening hives in winter is generally ill‑advised. He explains that the primary risk is harming the queen and that there is little benefit to inspecting colonies at this time, except for those planning oxalic acid (Apibioxal) treatments, which are most effective when the hive is broodless. The presenter walks through the hive’s configuration—metal roof, ventilation, empty brood box, feeder, and a healthy bee population—while carefully checking for the queen and brood. He finds the colony essentially broodless, with only one or two eggs and abundant stores, likely due to a recent cold snap. He concludes that the optimal window for oxalic acid sublimation in the UK is typically mid‑ to late‑November, but weather conditions can shift this timing, and a broodless hive in January would be ideal for mite control. Throughout, he repeatedly warns viewers not to replicate the inspection at home, emphasizing the potential harm to the queen and the limited practical value of winter hive checks.
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Do not, I repeat, do not try this at home. Today I'm going inside this colony. I'm going to pull out some frames and I'm going to show you if there is brood inside. Before I show you whether there's brood in here or not, do you think there's going to be some brood? Stick it in the comments, yes or no. Brood inside a colony in the middle of January in North Wales. Now you might be thinking, well, you're telling us not to kind of go inside and look to see if there's brood. Why are you doing it? I'm doing it for that very specific reason. The most stupid thing that you can do is go into your colonies and start pulling out frames when it is the middle of winter. It might be sunny outside, it might be 12 degrees plus, but we are in the middle of winter and there is no benefit to going in, checking your colonies for any reason at this point in the year. However, some people like to do oxalic acid sublimation in January, and if you're doing anything with oxalic acid, it's far more effective if there's no brood inside. I've given people advice recently to say January's too late, December's too late. I think it's the mid to the end of November is the perfect sweet spot on average within the UK to target that broodless period. And when I went in to check some colonies at that point in the year, I did have significant brood breaks on a number of colonies. But to follow that video up, I'm going to go inside here today into this beautiful colony here, see if we have got brood inside. Let's jump straight in and get to it. So you can see the configuration that I've got set up here. I've got a metal roof that comes off quite nicely. I've got the lid on with some ventilation holes, but do ignore that, they should be solid, but it really doesn't make a difference with this configuration. I've then got an empty brood box there that is going to be used for double brood later on in the year, and then I have got a Feeder here, and then look at that. I've got lots and lots of nice healthy bees. Right. So first thing I want to do is just double check underneath there to make sure that we've not just got a queen running around. Biggest risk at this time of the year is killing the queen. So I'm going to do absolutely everything I possibly can to ensure that we do not kill the queen. Carpathian queen. This one you can see because I've got it written on the box there. So these are Carpathian bees. So you can see lots of bees in there. Always excuse the bees' temperament at this point in the year because They do not want to be disturbed. Quick check underneath there to see if we can see the queen. Doesn't look like she's on there. So looking at the colony, we've got a nice cluster pretty much covering all of the frames. Got bees in every single gap here. A little bit of a void there, but that is effectively a full brood box full of bees. I'm going to start over on this side. I think that's going to be the easiest way to get that first frame out. So super, super careful. I'm not even going to say if you're doing this at home, be super careful. Do not do this at home. Full Stop. No benefit whatsoever. Lots and lots of stores left. Very, very good to see. Double checking the queen is not on there. Nothing on that frame apart from stores and lots of very happy, healthy bees. Lots of stores on that frame there as well. Thought I might have seen some eggs in there. Can see 1 or 2 eggs, but not much. Nothing on that frame either. There's our queen. Beautiful dark Carpathian queen. And still no brood. So interesting, we've had a good cold snap and that could be the reason we're not seeing any brood at this point in the year. I have to say, I thought we would find a little bit in here, even just kind of like a couple of fist-sized full of brood, but no, not seeing anything. So putting everything back together again because there is no brood within this beehive here. So not what I was expecting to see. Normally if I go in at this point in the year, I'm starting to see a little bit of brood, at least like a tiny bit, a couple of fist-sized patches of brood. That colony there, we went through every single frame and apart from one or 2 eggs, I would say they are completely broodless. Absolutely perfect configuration for doing an apibioxal or oxalic acid sublimation. You would knock down every single mite at this point in the year. So as always on this channel, I'll show you when I get things wrong. I genuinely thought there was going to be a little bit of brood in there today, and I was going to try and point out why I think you should shift that oxalic acid sublimation to earlier on in the year, but it is completely dependent on the climate, on the weather, I would say more importantly. And we've just come out the back of a really, really cold spell, and the bees obviously haven't responded to the increasing temperatures and the lengthening days just yet. So you might still have a chance to get in there and do some oxalic acid sublimation. Do it before the bees start rearing brood, and they will thank you in the spring.
