At some point every fall, beekeepers have to face the hard truth: not every colony is going to make it through winter on its own. Droughts, late splits, queen issues — whatever the cause, weak hives need help before the first cold snap hits. The goal is simple: go into winter with fewer, stronger colonies rather than a lineup of maybes.
Heft Matters
The first step is checking hive weight. A strong colony heading into winter should feel heavy. Try the old “two-finger test” — hook two fingers under the bottom board and try to lift. If it comes up easy, you’ve got a problem. A healthy hive should be nearly impossible to lift without hurting those fingers. That weight means stored honey, and stored honey means fuel to stay alive when nothing’s blooming.
Equalize Before You Winterize
If you’ve got one booming hive and one limping along, even them out. Take a frame or two of capped brood — a gift of babies — from the strong hive and add it to the weak one. You can do the same with honey frames if one’s overflowing and the other’s light. The goal is balanced populations and enough food in each box to form a warm cluster through winter.
Shrink to Fit
Too much empty space is the enemy. A tall hive that’s half full just makes the bees work harder to heat it. Consolidate. Pull extra boxes until the bees cover every frame. Crowded bees are warm bees, and that close contact helps them regulate temperature when the nights turn cold.
When to Combine
If one hive is truly weak — small cluster, failing queen, or spotty brood — don’t waste time trying to nurse it through. Pinch the queen and combine it with a stronger colony using the newspaper method. Lay a single sheet of newspaper over the top box of the strong hive, make a few short slits in the newspaper so the bees can peak through, set the weak one right on top, and walk away. The bees will slowly chew through the openings in the paper, decide who has a queen, and eventually learn to get along and become one united colony.
Feed and Breathe
Keep feeding sugar syrup while daytime temps stay above 60°F so the bees can take it down and store it. As evening temps drop, you can switch to 2:1 on weaker hives (1:1 induces them to make brood, 2:1 means they just store it up for winter).
Once it stops topping 60F during the day on the regular, stop feeding sugar water. When it's really cold, sugar water will freeze and when moderately cold the bees are just damp and chilly with all that stored liquid feed.
Strong hives should be fine minus the liquid feed but on weak hives you can switch to solid food as an emergency winter protocol — sugar bricks, fondant, or winter patties. And don’t seal the hive up airtight. Bees respire, creating moisture that can condense and freeze. A little top ventilation or an upper entrance helps moisture escape and keeps the colony dry.
A heavy, tight, well-fed hive with good ventilation is a winter survivor. Combine weak colonies now, feed while you can, and give your bees the best shot at seeing spring.