A Washington State University entomologist who studies the indoor cold storage of honey bees has released a downloadable best-practices guide that includes articles, tips and history.

Brandon Hopkins and other authors have teamed up to publish “Indoor Storage of Honey Bee Colonies in the United States,” downloadable as a PDF.

Storing bees in dark, cold conditions for short periods during the season forces them into hibernation, disrupting their reproductive cycle and protecting them from varroa mites. It also protects bees from fires, floods and lack of forage.

Hopkins recently provided an update for the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission about some of his research, which is also funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Project Apis m., the Almond Board of California and X (formerly Google X).

The 32-page document is available on the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission’s website at: treefruitresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/164656_indoor_bee_storage_booklet__1_.pdf.