Well December without doubt is one of the quietest months for beekeepers. Winter should well and truely be here and all the hard work done by the bees and their keepers. However there are a few things we can do in this quietest of months:

Check the hive is weather proof; a water leak could be disasterous. If a period of sunshine follows a heavy snowfall you may want to shade the hive entrance so any bees do not feel tempted to venture out, rapidly chill and die.

Its also a great time to read up on some of those beekeeping books, you can buy some good ones below:

Practical Beekeeping (1997) by Clive de Bruyn
Bees at the Bottom of the Garden by Alan Campion
Guide to Bees and Honey by Ted Hooper
Honey Bees: A Guide to Management by Ron Brown
Beeswax (1995) by R Brown
A Manual of Beekeeping (reprint 1999) by E. B. Wedmore

Also check out my beekeepers year post here. It gives a breakdown of things beekeepers should be doing every month of the year.