I had 7 hives going into winter. We have 3 that made it through. There is no feed for them to forage yet, and a lot of days they can't fly because of the cold. I supplement feed them with white sugar and a pollen patty, till they get going. Quite a few hives make it through, then starve because of lack of feed. I find that an overwintered hive will bee your strongest hives, once they get going and best producers. Good Luck old243

Here in Pa, a cold winter usually has more hives survive. But you need a few warmer days, in the 40s , so bees can break their cluster and get to the outside frames that hold honey. It’s not unusual to find a winter die out hive with bees tucked into frames 5 and 6 with full frames of honey in 1-2 and 9-10. If a two deep box hive has a top box full of honey, they won’t run out of food. But it comes down to getting access to it all.

Does the beekeeper euthanize or let the bees die in the Winter?

Keith

guessing those are not local packages

Must be a huge markup on bees there. I'm not seeing that amount worth of bees there.

Out of curiosity, how cool is that room?

I’m guessing there’s more than a half million bees there. A three pound package should have about 10,000 bees.

Not an issue for us all our winters will have warm days each month that'll have them active or even flying. I just don't want them active and eating when there's nothing out there to replace it.

The buzzing must be loud in that room.

These are four pound packages and the contain about 13,000 bees each. You can see about 225 bee boxes in the photo, but there was over 300 boxes that arrived.

The beekeeper only raises the price by $5 each box. He doesn’t make very much money at all, because he donates hives to the Scouts, friends, and his family. So that also reduces the profit he makes.

The room is kept at 74-76 degrees.