In the final episode of the "Making Splits for Winter" series, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey walks viewers through the last steps of preparing overwintering nuc colonies. He recaps the full preparation processāmoving two frames of bees to a new apiary, installing a mated queen, feeding to strength, treating for varroa, trickleāfeeding, backāfilling with 2:1 or invert syrup, and achieving the target colony weight. Edwards then opens one of the nucs in the field at 4 PM on a cold November evening to show the bees clustered, with minimal entrance activity, full frames, and bees crowding the feederāsigns of a strong, healthy colony ready for winter. He discusses the timing of his splits (late July/August), the unusually warm and dry SeptemberāOctober weather that led to heavy brood rearing and lighter stores, and warns that many colonies may face starvation despite appearing strong. As a preventative measure, he recommends weighing colonies in November and adding a slab of fondant in an upāturned feeder for any that are light. He also notes the plan to apply oxalic acid (ApiBioxyl) later when the colonies become broodless. The video concludes with a summary of the series, encouragement to subscribe, and wishes for a successful winter for viewersā colonies.
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It's 4 PM, it's November, it's getting dark, I'm getting stuck in fields in the pickup truck. It's time to finish the Making Splits for Winter beekeeping series. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping and the last in the Making Splits for Winter series. I decided to draw this series to a close because it's November now, It's getting so dark. The last time I looked into this colony, they were already clustering down. My hands are cold. I've been out doing some bees today and it's genuinely freezing cold, single figures. We're into winter now, well and truly into winter, and this series is making splits for winter. So I might do a few follow-up videos just showing what happens to these splits in the winter, but they're fed to weight. I've removed the Apivar strip. They're ready for winter. I've made my splits for winter. So just to summarize for a final time what we've done: took 2 frames of bees, took them to a new apiary, added a mated queen, got the feeders on, fed them up to strength, got them nice big and strong, treated them for varroa, trickle-fed them to boost them, get them as big as they could possibly be, backfilled them with 2:1 or invert sugar syrup, Got them up to the correct weight, and now it's winter and the bees are ready to go. So the final thing I'm going to do, I'm not even going to put my bee suit on, so I'll probably get stung in the face. I'm just going to open up that colony, give you a quick glimpse inside. You're going to see that they're going to have compressed down. They're going to be going into that cluster formation because it's cold here today and it's going into nighttime as well, so they're going to be getting ready for it. I doubt we're going to see any activity at that entrance either. Going to give you one final look at the split that I've made going into winter. So I won't get my beekeeping suit on, I'll open it up, let's see how they're getting on. So as predicted, no activity at the entrance. To be honest, that's a little bit more than I thought it was going to be. Still got a couple of them hanging around, but not like it was last time where they were flying in and out. I know it's a little bit later in the day now, but the colonies really are ramping down for winter. Right, so let's get this lid off. Get inside, see what that colony is looking like for the last time. It's so dark, I can't believe it. It's about quarter past 4 now and it's just nearly pitch black, so I hope the camera is holding up in this light. I hate this time of year, absolutely hate it. I like it when it's light up until 11 o'clock, gives me loads of time to do things as opposed to sitting in the house. So let's get in, take a last look at the colony that we've made for our splits going into winter. So really nice smell coming from the colony. That's a good sign. It shows they've been out, they've been foraging on something this week or the last couple of weeks. Getting a nice smell coming from the colony. Probably gonna be out on the ivy. Also nice, they're not trying to sting me in the face 'cause it's just too cold. They're not stupid bees. If it's cold, they're not gonna come up at you crazy like that. But the colony is looking superb. So here it is. Here is my nuc of bees. And they are so ready for winter. Got a few bees down in the feeder, which is always a good sign, 'cause it means that the colony is struggling a little bit for space. But we're into November now, they're not gonna expand any more than this. This is such a good sign in terms of what we're seeing. You can see every single seam is full to the brim with bees, all the way up to that edge. Every single one full to the brim. That's what we want to see, nice quality bees and they're full. This is what gives us the really good overwintering performance. And obviously they're not going to be this big, they'll cluster down, they'll reduce that brood down, they'll probably go through a broodless period within the next few weeks, maybe within the next couple of months they will go broodless, hopefully. And I can get the oxalic acid, the ApiBioxyl, in there then, get that varroa load as low as it can possibly be. But this is the snapshot, first week in November, they're still covering all 6 of those frames. Big strong colony ready for winter. So there you go, that's it. I didn't get stung in the face, it's too cold for that. It's probably about 6 or 7 degrees at the moment, so I'm going to get that lid back on as soon as possible. Really don't need to be going into your colonies this late in the year. This is why I just wanted to get in here, finish the series off, because I don't want to be going in unnecessarily opening them up just to show you anymore. So there we go, that is the series finished, and I really hope you found it useful. Obviously, sometimes these videos come out a little bit late, but this is a good point of reference for you for next year. You'll be able to see the dates that I did those videos, and you'll be able to kind of go through the season and make those interactions and those manipulations and make up your splits. And get your colonies and your splits nice and strong going into winter. It's strange actually because I made these splits, I think it was towards the back end of July, which is quite late to be making splits really. I like to make them before that, get them big and strong. I actually made some really speculative splits with some Yelanta queens that I had that were surplus to requirements, and I did those at the back end of August. And this year has just been crazy. Our September and October weather has been very, very unseasonal. Very dry, very warm. The bees have done so well on the ivy, and the nucs that I made at the back end of August are the same size as the nuc that you've just seen there, covering six frames. Really big, strong queens. Hopefully, we're going to have a nice short winter. I think the problem that people are going to have this year in terms of getting the colonies throughāyou're going to see less maybe of the Nosema, less of the poorly mated queens. But I think you're going to see issues of colonies starving this year. And the reason I say that is the weather's been so good in September and October that the queens have kept on going. They've laid up the frames of brood. The brood is energy intensive in terms of rearing it, which means that the stores are lower, which means that the colonies don't weigh as much. And I'm really finding that along all of my colonies at the moment. They're big, they're strong, they're where I want them to be, but they're a little bit light. And it's a Bit too late for us to feed syrup on them now, so you're constantly adjusting. So what I will be doing in November, back end of November, I'll be going around all of my colonies and putting on a big slab of fondant as an insurance policy in an upturned feeder or an eek, just to make sure they've got enough food to get them through the year. I would say that's pretty good advice as well. Get into your colonies, give them a heft, see how much they weigh. Hopefully they're going to be nice and heavy. Any that are light, get some fondant on them. Don't lose your colonies to starvation. It is the most annoying reason for colonies not getting through the year. I hope you've enjoyed the series though. If you've got through all of the episodes, well done. Quite a few episodes there. I hope you found it useful. I'll do some more similar series next year. I wish all of your colonies the very best throughout the winter, but as always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.
