Features of wintering bees in a polycarbonate greenhouse

Features of the design of a greenhouse for wintering bees

An ordinary polycarbonate greenhouse can be used in winter as a greenhouse.

Wintering bees in a polycarbonate greenhouse is the most competent, environmentally friendly solution for bees

The main functions that a bee wintering room should perform:

• protection from noise, temperature changes and strong winds;
• creating an optimal air humidity regime;
• feed savings;
• extending the service life of hives.

Bee on the snow

If we leave the greenhouse in its original form, it will not be able to fully fulfill all its tasks. So, on sunny days it will heat up more than on cloudy days. The situation can be corrected by laying a light-proof material on top of the polycarbonate sheets - roofing felt or glassine. And in order to protect the room even more reliably from temperature changes, it’s a good idea to add additional thermal insulation on the inside. Insulation made from foamed polystyrene or sheet foam are suitable for this purpose.

Alternative option (external insulation of the greenhouse with polystyrene foam)

Additional insulation of hives

Thermal insulation will protect not only from frost. With the arrival of spring, when it becomes warm outside, the shelter will be cooler, so the bees will not fly out of the hive prematurely. Regulate the temperature in the room using ventilation vents and doors. So, at the very beginning of wintering, when the weather is constantly changing, the beekeeper will have to be very careful and control the temperature regime. Overheating is especially harmful for bees, so keep the windows and doors open on warm days, and close them on cold days.

Modern technologies for wintering bees

Important! The difference in temperature between the room and the hive contributes to increased humidity. Monitor the air humidity in the greenhouse using measuring instruments. The normal value is in the range of 75-80%. Adjustment of indicators is achieved by increasing or decreasing the flow of fresh air.

The influence of temperature in the winter hut on the results of wintering of bee colonies

When placing hives in winter, be sure to take care of protection from rodents. Make special metal stands for the hives, and protect the entrance with a metal mesh. If there are a lot of hives and you have to arrange them in two tiers, then make racks from metal profiles or fittings. Place the hives with the strongest families at the bottom, and place the weak ones at the top.

Polycarbonate prices

polycarbonate

Features of greenhouse buildings

The greenhouse used in beekeeping can be chosen as an ordinary one for growing vegetables. In this case, the bees along with the hives are placed in rows in it for the entire winter period. This method has a number of disadvantages:

• In the spring, the polycarbonate glows from the sun and the bees begin flying around the greenhouse too early. At the same time, they try to escape into the street and hide in the cracks. And at night the air temperature drops too much and the bees die;
• Also, polycarbonate itself is not very capable of withstanding strong temperature changes. Therefore, it is difficult to control and create the optimal temperature inside the greenhouse. This also makes the bees not feel very good.

In order to improve greenhouse conditions for bees, they began to further improve it. This is done in two stages:

1. Ruberoid is laid on top of polycarbonate. At the same time, the greenhouse becomes dark and the spring sun does not disturb the insects. The bees do not start flying around early and calmly wait for the warmth.
2. A three-centimeter layer of insulation is attached to the inner surface of the polycarbonate. Most often, ordinary foam is used. In this way, the most comfortable conditions are created so that the bees can overwinter in the greenhouse and emerge in the spring as a strong and healthy swarm.

As a result of such improvements, optimal conditions for bees are created in the greenhouse - the air temperature does not fluctuate even during severe frosts or in the spring. And a dark room does not cause any unnecessary movements in insects ahead of time.

Preparing bees for winter

The biological health of bees is of paramount importance for successful wintering. Bees that work on honey collection before the onset of cold weather rarely survive until the next season. The situation is similar with bees raising brood in September or October. An experienced beekeeper begins to prepare bee colonies for wintering in mid-summer.

Honey after summer pumping must be left in sufficient quantity to feed the bees during wintering. On average, 1 kg of live weight of bees consumes 8 kg of honey over the winter. In practice, this amount depends on wintering conditions and the breed of bees.

Table. Average data on feed consumption.

Before sending bee colonies for the winter, collect nests. For a family with 2.5 kg of live weight, when assembling, you will need to leave 15 to 20 kg of high-quality honey in the nest and a stock of about 10 kg in the warehouse. It is more convenient to send strong families for the winter in two-hull hives, with most of the food supply located in the upper building.

Methods for assembling bee nests for the winter: A - double-sided (vault), 1 - frames with honey, 2 - a club of bees on empty honeycombs; B - one-sided (angle); B - beard

Assembling a bee nest for the winter

Assembling a multi-body hive nest

It is important to place the frames correctly in the hive. Those of them where it is planned to form a club must have a supply of honey of at least 2 kg. Full copper frames should be placed around the edges of the hive. With the correct configuration of the nest, full-copper and low-copper frames alternate with each other - this prevents the death of bees with sufficient food supplies due to the fact that they were unable to reach the frames with honey.

Placing feed in combs for the winter

Important! The feed stock should not include frames with honeydew honey or honey from the last harvest from crops such as sunflower or cruciferous plants. Before wintering, they must be replaced with frames with summer honey, previously left for these purposes.

Top view of the nest before wintering

To stop late brood, feed the bees with sugar syrup. Optimally for making syrup, add sugar at the rate of 3 kg per 2 liters of water. Increasing the concentration may cause the syrup to crystallize and make it difficult for bees to use. A weaker solution may turn sour - to avoid this situation, we recommend adding a little acetic or citric acid to the finished syrup. The cooking rule is to first boil water and then add sugar. Otherwise, it simply will not dissolve completely. It is not recommended to boil the syrup for a long time; it is better to simply remove it from the heat after adding sugar and stir thoroughly until completely dissolved. Feeding should be plentiful.

Assembling nests in winter

It is useful to combine sugar feeding with disease prevention - just add the desired drug to the syrup. Fumagilin-B helps well against the common disease nosematosis.

"Fumagilin-B" in the treatment of nosematosis of bees

Drug for treating bees "Nozemat"

It is important that before the onset of winter dormancy, the bees have time to fly around efficiently and empty the intestines of feces. If you place bees in a wintering room before they make a full flight, in the spring you can find a weakened and thinned colony in the hives, completely unprepared for the nectar collection season.

Prices for Nozemat

Nozemate

Ways to feed bees in winter

In order for individuals to successfully survive the winter and survive, they must be fed. At this time, insects can be given honey or specially brewed syrup. Feeding with honey is quite an expensive pleasure, so beekeepers use other methods that depend on wintering conditions. If it was not possible to collect high-quality honey or it has already crystallized, you can feed the insects using frames.

The bee club will have a food supply of 1.5 to 2 kg until spring. It should be remembered that the correct calculation of the quality and quantity of feeding is a guarantee of a successful wintering of the swarm. The beekeeper should be especially careful towards the end of winter. Any carelessness can provoke insects to fly around the area, and because of this they can freeze in the cold.

It is necessary to use syrup as complementary food with caution, since it can lead to intestinal upset of insects and depletion of their body. Such a delicacy should not be liquid, otherwise the mixture may ferment over time and become unfit for consumption. The composition of the syrup must contain all the necessary nutrients for the insect's body.

To prepare honey-sugar syrup, you can follow the following recipe and algorithm:

1. Pour sugar into slightly cooled boiling water and dissolve.
2. After the syrup has cooled to the optimal temperature (+40°C), you need to add honey.
3. The resulting mixture should be poured into pre-prepared feeders. If you don't have them on hand, you can use bags.

Preparing the uterus is a very important stage

The successful wintering of a bee colony directly depends on the health, age and quality of the queen. Young one-year-old queens produce the highest brood. A good technique for sending a family with a strong queen to winter is the use of temporary layering. Bees from temporary layers are combined with the main colonies, old queens are replaced with fresh ones.

Queen bee

For ease of work, each uterus should be marked with coloring. One-year-olds - one color, two-year-olds - another, etc. In this way, it is easy to cull the old queen and replace it with a younger one. In large apiaries, it is advisable to assign a number to each queen and attach it to the hive in which she is placed. When the queen is moved to another hive, the number is moved with her. It is recommended to keep a separate notebook for each hive with records of work performed, indicating dates and times. This makes caring for bee colonies very easy.

It is advisable to mark each uterus

Pros and cons of using greenhouses

The advantage of a polycarbonate greenhouse is undoubtedly. Its advantages are determined primarily by:

• low cost; • ease of construction; • lightness.

If necessary, it is possible to organize the first flight in such a building - for this it is enough to turn on the heating.

At the same time, the greenhouse is beneficial for the beekeeper in that it provides maximum comfort, which makes the process of caring for the hives less labor-intensive.

The disadvantage is that the well-being of families has to be constantly monitored, which means that the polycarbonate greenhouse should be located near the house, because you are unlikely to be able to visit a remote dacha often.

At the same time, bees that go out for the first flight in the greenhouse sometimes lose the ability to navigate in space and crash against its transparent walls. A simple trick can protect you from this danger: place several frames of honey in the corners. Insects flock to them and no longer see the need to leave the location.

Preparing the hives

In an unheated greenhouse, it is recommended to insulate the hives from the outside. It is convenient to use foam sheets for these purposes. The upper and lower tapholes should be left open, slightly reducing the width of the gap. Inside the hive, complementary food is placed on a stocked nest and covered with canvas. Near the back wall, the canvas is turned back a little to create conditions for better ventilation of the hive.

The nest is covered with canvas

An insulating cushion of moss or other loose and hygroscopic material is placed on the canvas, and then the top cover is installed.

Beehives in a greenhouse

Ice in the hallway in front of the entrance is one of the possible consequences of improper preparation

After the hives are prepared and placed for wintering in compliance with all standards, the beekeeper is not recommended to disturb the peace of the bees with his presence. Limit yourself to controlling temperature and humidity and occasionally (no more than twice a month) conduct a visual inspection of the hives. If the bees feel uncomfortable in any of them, which you can tell by the uncharacteristic buzzing of the hive, carefully open it and check for the reason.

Hive inspection

When inspecting in darkened greenhouses, turn on the lighting in red.

Air temperature in winter

If you use simple polycarbonate without improving it or supplementing it with other materials, then the air temperature will fluctuate slightly. This is especially noticeable during severe frosts in winter or in spring, when the sun heats the greenhouse. You can monitor how the bees feel in the greenhouse by sound:

1. If a strong hum is observed in weak families, this means that the air temperature has dropped too much for them and it is advisable to warm up the room. Additionally, you should limit the flow of cold air into the room.
2. If strong bee colonies create a restless hum, then you should urgently ventilate the room, as this means increased temperatures.

Try to maintain temperatures around -5+5 degrees. It is more convenient to do and control if you use additional materials for insulation. Thus, the temperature inside the greenhouse will be approximately the same throughout winter and spring, until it is time to release the bees for their first flight.

How to determine the best time to exhibit bees for the winter

Autumn weather is changeable. After short-term cold weather, warming may occur. Prepared hives are placed in a permanent wintering place only with the onset of stable negative temperatures. This way you give the bees the opportunity to make a quality pre-winter flight. The hives must be well dried before the exhibition, so they cannot be moved to the wintering site in inclement weather - only a dry day is suitable for this. A suitable time of day is late evening or even night. At this time, all the bees have already returned to the hive and their activity is minimal.

You can throw snow into the greenhouse so that the temperature does not rise sharply later

Growing eggplants in a polycarbonate greenhouse

In warm climates it is grown in open ground, but in those regions not spoiled by heat, eggplants are planted only in greenhouses. You will find more detailed information about this in this article.

Keeping poultry in a greenhouse in winter: why is it a good idea?

The easiest way to solve the problem is for those who have a greenhouse. Those who do not have one, by installing a greenhouse on their site, can solve two problems at once - keeping animals in the winter and growing vegetables in early spring.

Keeping poultry in a greenhouse in winter, as well as rabbits, goats and bees, is a very realistic method that works for the benefit of the owner of the building. In addition, the soil in the greenhouse structure is replenished with organic matter.

In addition, the greenhouse has all the necessary communications for keeping birds. This will help you create conditions for animals that are as close to natural as possible and increase the effectiveness of their care.

To keep chickens, from what is already in the greenhouse you will need:

• Heating;
• Ventilation;
• Water supply;
• Lighting;
• Protection from wind and rain.

If you keep birds in an existing greenhouse, then you will not need to build a barn or other structure, and come up with heating and lighting methods.

Advantages and disadvantages of polycarbonate greenhouses for wintering bees

Using greenhouses for wintering has many advantages. Let's list just a few.

1. Low cost and ease of installation. The finished greenhouse can be easily installed in one day.
2. For regions with a mild climate, the use of greenhouses allows you to save weak families from death.
3. If the bees did not have time to fly around before wintering, then it is easy to create conditions for flying around in the greenhouse by simple heating. This can also be done at the end of winter, when the bees already need to cleanse their intestines, but the weather is not yet very suitable for exhibiting outside.
4. Winter care of hives is carried out in comfortable conditions.
5. At subzero outside temperatures, bees are not disturbed by daylight. If your greenhouse maintains indoor temperatures between 0 and 4 degrees Celsius, apply shade to prevent bees from being disturbed. Also make sure there is no noise.
6. For areas with rainy autumn months, you can prepare nests directly in the greenhouse. If the temperature outside is still high, then the prepared hives should be taken outside before the onset of stable cold weather.

Wintering of bees

Important! The only disadvantage that should be highlighted is that the wintering of bees in a greenhouse must be under constant supervision. This option is only acceptable if the greenhouse is located near the beekeeper’s place of residence. This method is not suitable as a country option.

When flying around in greenhouses, bees often lose orientation, a certain percentage of them die - they fly without noticing barriers made of transparent material, and lose strength trying to break through them. The situation can be corrected by placing frames of honey in the corner for drying. A busy bee will not become disoriented.

In such a transparent greenhouse, bees feel like they are in a “black box” and are unable to navigate

Bee products are not only sweet and aromatic honey. Propolis is used in medicine, folk healers use death, cosmetologists add wax to the composition of miraculous ointments, it is widely used in the manufacture of candles and other areas. Bee stings have a healing effect for many ailments.

Honey has many beneficial properties

The work of a beekeeper is very difficult and full of risks. A lazy person shouldn't even try to keep bees. In addition to a large amount of knowledge, which must be constantly replenished with your personal observations and experiments, an apiary requires a large investment of physical labor and financial investments. The most persistent and persistent beekeepers achieve success.

Question about air humidity

It will be possible to attract bees to a greenhouse only if the conditions in it satisfy them. Therefore, it is worth understanding whether the indoor humidity is suitable for insects. It is determined using a psychrometer. You can also take measurements using two thermometers:

• take one thermometer;
• wrap the ball in cambric or a double layer of gauze with the ends dipped in a container filled with water;
• moisture from the moistened ball will evaporate, and it will cool exactly as much as the dry air in the greenhouse;
• According to the psychometer table, air humidity can be determined by the difference between the thermometer readings.

Normal air humidity is between 75 and 85%. In this case, bees obtain moisture from honey. If the humidity is too high, the honey will spoil. If the air is dry, the honey will become too dry.

You can reduce humidity by increasing ventilation and temperature at the same time. You can put buckets of salt in the greenhouse. If this does not help, the bees will have to be moved to another greenhouse. Dry air is often observed in Siberia. You can solve the problem by watering the greenhouse floor with water.

There is no need to listen to bees when you are in a greenhouse. If the hum is smooth, then everything is in order

Preliminary preparation and care

1. In the greenhouse it is necessary to install iron stands on which the hives are placed. This is done to prevent small rodents from reaching the bees.
2. Immediately before wintering, all wooden elements of the hive are covered with a thin oil film .
3. From November to February, if necessary, you can clear the path in front of the greenhouse from snow . No further additional actions are required at this stage.
4. In mid-February, the bees should be given honeycombs with honey sprinkled with melt water on top . These honeycombs should be placed on bars with a cross-section of 1 x 1 centimeter, located on the frames. The bars are again placed on top, and the canvas is placed on them.
5. Bees can be taken out of the greenhouse to the street as early as March . During this period, you should again feed with honey and beebread.

Reviews from beekeepers

My grandfather’s bees have been wintering in a greenhouse for about five years now. Unlike ordinary wintering, where you prepared the hive for winter and forgot about it, this is a different situation. Constantly walk and ventilate the greenhouse, maintain the required humidity, and in the spring also monitor the temperature. Grandfather runs to the bees almost every day and has become quite restless. But in the summer they began to bring more honey. Whether this is somehow connected or not, I don’t know. And the grandfather is sure that the bees work harder thanks to his care.

Andrey Skorokhodov

But I don’t recommend anyone to put beehives in greenhouses, much less in a greenhouse. Everything should be as nature intended - natural and natural. My bees spend the winter outside just fine. It is enough to lightly cover them with snow to make it warmer. My father kept bees for 40 years and never left them to winter indoors. The average temperature in a greenhouse is higher than outdoors. And during winter thaws, the bee will climb out of the hive, decide to fly around, thinking that spring is already. And if young bees are born, then the guard will be there. They will die after all. No, it’s better the old fashioned way, like our grandfathers and great-grandfathers did. The old generation will not give bad advice.

Nikolay Ivanovich

I don’t know about you, but I have complete order when the bees spend the winter in the greenhouse. I carry out preparations in the fall, starting from the twentieth of September (although it varies, in this case it happened at the beginning of October). First of all, I check the greenhouse to make sure there are no holes or cracks through which they can get out. Then I bring the hives into the greenhouse. I usually do this in the evening, when the bees have completed their flight.

Why do I do my training indoors and not outside, you ask? Yes, because you need to redo a lot of things: process the hive, remove excess frames, etc., but it’s cold outside, windy, raining, and the bees are angry - that’s the only way they bite.

The next morning, the bees begin to get used to the new place, making another flight.
In the afternoon, towards evening, the insects calm down, their hive is already warm enough, and they themselves are calm! I carefully collect honey, prepare the hives for winter, and treat them against mites. That's all. I'm waiting for winter. Elena Ilyina

Advice from experienced beekeepers

For a successful wintering of bees, experienced beekeepers advise adhering to the following basic rules and recommendations:

• maintaining complete peace and darkness in the winter hut, since sound and light can lure bees out of the hives;
• prevent the entry of rodents that can damage the hive or disturb insects;
• regularly listen to the noise in the hive, which will help diagnose the condition of the whole family: the absence of noise signals the bees are starving, and high noise indicates crystallization of food.

Every beekeeper thinks about how to organize the wintering of their insects. So, in order to successfully overcome the cold season, it is necessary to follow the rules for heating the greenhouse, the temperature regime and not to forget about equipping the room with ventilation.