Hefting is a key skill to learn as part of managing your bees over winter. Knowing how much stores they have left in the hive when you can't go in to physically check can prevent starvation or unnecessary feeding.

Hefting is a simple way of judging how much stores are left, although you'll also need to understand the type of bees you have and their utilisation of stores (locally-adapted bees tend to be much more frugal than imported bees and some Buckfasts) and you'll need to take into account the weight of the hive that the bees are in.

Roger Patterson, with decades of beekeeping experience, explains how it is done.

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