Winter time is a time of reflection and forward planning. How well did you do and where can I improve things. Ask fellow club members how they got on and where they felt they did well (or went wrong). It was only an average year so if you produced between 25 & 30 Kg no worries. If not, look at your methods. If you did the usually 40 kgs or more, you've got a really good site.

Now that winter is here, is the hives getting enough sun? Hives need a couple of hours in the morning to dry out. I've been around mine and most were wet inside so small sticks (a match on each corner will do) were placed under the lid to give a little more ventilation. At the same time the hives were "hefted" (lifted) from the back to determine how much food they had. Of the one hundred or so checked, six needed feeding, so another super of wet honey was added to carry them through.

At the same time tidy up around the hive - cut away any grass and make sure the hive is sloping slightly forward so the rain runs off the bottom board.

Inside the hive, the queen is now underway again, laying in a patch about the size of your fist. In fact, in some hives, the bees have continued to rear brood all the way through as there has been a constant trickle of nectar coming in.

This has lead to hives with large populations (some are now spilling into the feeders) which could cause problems in the spring - early swarming. Large populations could also lead to starvation in late Oct / Nov so keep an eye on the hives. Keep a minimum of three frames of honey in the hives - any less feed sugar syrup.

Order a new queen for the spring and make up a top split when she arrives as a method of swarm control.

Order any new woodware that need replacing or is required for expansion. Before you put it together, preserve it in metalex or a similar type of non-toxic wood preserver. IE. Soak supers for 24 hours and then place in a plastic bag for a week so the preserve has a change to really penetrate into the timber. Then put together or stack out in the wind for six weeks before painting.

You can make up the frames but don't wax them until they are ready to go on the hives. We'll show you how to make this up at one of the meetings.