Ready for Winter
With highs only in the low 50's today, but cool, wet weather coming the rest of the week, I decided I had better get the winter covers on. Again, I went with the 3/4 inch styrofoam, which has seemed to work well in the past. The 8 frame hive is in the top photo, with hives #2 and #1 shown below.
A peek into the top box of each indicated they have a full top box of honey supply. I will check again in several weeks. Last year, I thought I had great surplus going into winter only to have hive #1 die off. I'm still a bit concerned about this hive. A couple weeks ago I looked through the entire hive and found only a few capped cells, but zillions of bees. Hopefully the queen just shut down for awhile, due to the crowded, fall conditions. Time will tell. I'm not sure what I would do anyway at this point in time, with winter approaching and such a large population. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Hi Jim and Bessie!
ReplyDeleteSeems like you and I have a pretty similar wintering setups - except I hold mine insulation together with a cam buckle strap. I also put a piece of insulation between the inner cover and the migratory cover. I could not tell whether you do the same.
This winter, I am going to add a candy board on top of my hives, even though they have plenty of stores and good clusters. I am going to post some pictures of my setup this weekend on my blog.
Maria
http://www.donnellyfarmsohio.com/
Maria,
ReplyDeleteI thought of the straps when I went out the next day and about half of my duct tape strips were coming off--must have been a bad batch this year, since I usually have not had any trouble with that. I thought, though, the straps might be much quicker. Will try that next year. I don't put foam above the inner cover, just a big piece on top of the hive, with a brick. I'll be sure to check out your photos!
Hi Jim:
ReplyDeleteI have my photos up. You can see them at http://www.donnellyfarmsohio.com/2013/11/fall-inspections-wrapping-hives-and.html
Maria
http://www.donnellyfarmsohio.com/