# Final prep for winter.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I have a queenless colony I have been watching for about a month now. No worker has steped up to become a layer so today I am combine it with a weaker queen rite colony. Another colony still in a single because they just didn't seem to want to build will get a second deep I have in storage full of honey. All other hives will get the lift test and any found lite will get frames of honey to address that issue from stuff I have stored for just such and event.
Todays high is supposed to be in the 60's but the rest of the week the weather forecasters say will struggle to get to the high 50's.
Rain for Tuesday and Wednesday also forcast.

 Al


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## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

when do you put tar paper or the styrafoam insulation on your hives?? the bee club said they do it in nov--wondering when you do it. and do you use the tar paper or styrafoam? how many holes do you leave open? i have two deeps with a hole in each box and the small hole in the entrance reducer and am planning on getting some popsicle sticks under the inner cover. is this too much?? how many layers of tar paper--just one? i was thinking of going with the styrafoam but i just keep thinking it wont warm the hive as much as tar paper would--your thoughts on this please..


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## scrapiron (Jul 23, 2011)

How do you handle things once the combine is done? I put my queenright colony on top, and the weak one on bottom. (seems like the majority do it this way) However, you end up with the lite/empty deep on the bottom, and brood on top. With winter approaching, we all know this is backwards. Do you wait a few weeks and switch the boxes, or try to switch out the brood frames to the center of the bottom box? 

I opened it up yesterday. Its been 3 weeks since the combine. No brood in bottom box, and it is quickly filling with the Goldenrod flow. (about 1/3 full , around 25 pounds) Top has lots of brood, so my Queen made it ok. It is a good 60 pounds.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I do not use tar paper or stryfoam insulation other than to put a bit in the outer cover. Just to many hives in to many places. I would have mine wrapped in Oct if I did it.
The entrances stay the 5 to 6 inches as they were all summer, the 3/4 inch holes in the hive bodies stay open all winter too. The flashing in the bottom boards are full closed by the end of September.
I make sure all the hives have a real good wind block to the north and if possiable the west. tghe wind when it hits the wind block and goes over it should not come down on top of the hives allow 5 feet of space between the wind block and the hives. In some locations in the past I even bought straw bales to make a tempory wind block. I also have built a wind block out of privecy fencing at a location that I knew was going to be long term.















I place the weak colony on the top after I have opened up the bottom and made sure it has at least 8 frames of honey. Then I place the weak queen less colony on the top and fill it with 8 frames of honey also. Of course I have the extra frames to give to them.

 Al


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

has anyone done this ??? This was on a site that is just weird .. thought this sounds some thing like Als inner cover 

How to make a moisture quilt for a Langstroth hive
For years I&#8217;ve been trying to reduce moisture accumulation in my wintering hives. Then last summer, after much reading about WarrÃ© hives, I decided to modify a WarrÃ©-style quilt box into something that might work on my Langstroths here in the Pacific Northwest.

I spent quite a while thinking about this and a long time building the quilts, but at this point I am ecstatic about the results. They are really working&#8212;no moisture at all is dripping down on my bees. The funny thing is this: the quilts are working in a way that is different from what I predicted&#8212;but more on that in a bit.

Here is what I did:

I bought a bunch of two-inch supers that were designed to be used as mountain camp rims.
Using a one-inch hole saw, I drilled four holes in each frame for ventilation.
After I painted the frames, I stapled a piece of #10 hardware cloth over each hole to keep out critters.
I bought canvas by the yard, cut pieces to fit the frames, and finished the edges so they wouldn&#8217;t fray.
I stapled one piece of canvas onto each rim, stretching it as tightly as I could.
I filled each &#8220;quilt&#8221; with wood chips leftover from brood rearing (chicken brood rearing, that is.)
I put one quilt frame on each hive. In most cases I placed it above the top brood box and below the telescoping cover. In some of the hives it is above a mountain camp rim and below the telescoping cover.
For some reason my brain was muddled on the next point. I thought the moisture would wet the quilt from the bottom up. In other words, I thought the warm moist air would rise and condense on the canvas and wood chips nearest the brood nest. So I was surprised and confused the first time I opened the hives and discovered that just the top layer of wood chips was wet and the rest of the quilt was dry.

Now that I have de-muddled, it all makes sense. The wood chips are light, fluffy, and basically the same temperature as the air above the brood nest, so the moist air does not condense on the wood chips at all. Instead, the humid air rises and goes right through the canvas and the two inches of wood chips until it hits the cold inner surface of the telescoping cover. Once it hits that cold surface, the moisture condenses (just like in a regular hive) and then rains back down. But instead of the drops falling on the brood nest, they land on the wood chips and are absorbed. It is just so cool!

I&#8217;ve opened all my hives several times since I installed the quilts and in each case the inside of the telescoping cover and the top layer of wood chips have been wet. When I stir the chips, it is easy to see that only the surface layer is wet because the wet chips are a yellowish-brown color compared to the dry ones which are almost white.

My original plan was to change the wood chips whenever the quilt became saturated, but so far I haven&#8217;t had to. It seems the ventilation holes are allowing the chips to dry in spite of all the rain. The moisture hasn&#8217;t seeped down more than one-quarter inch.

While building the quilts I was worried that the 2-inch super would be too shallow, but it seems to be about right for this climate. I think that a very cold climate would warrant a thicker layer&#8212;perhaps a three-inch rim like those used for baggie feeders.

I should also mention that the four ventilation holes are providing the sole top-of-the-hive ventilation for each hive. Four holes may seem like a lot, but the canvas and the wood chips prevent a cold draft from flowing across the bees&#8212;the air movement is more diffuse because of the quilt. I keep a very small entrance in winter, but I have the Varroa drawers removed so air flows in through the bottom of the hive and out through the ventilation holes.

Rusty


First I drilled holes in the supers.

I painted the supers inside and out.

I stapled hardware cloth over the inside of the holes.

After finishing the edges, I stapled the canvas to the rims.

Finished quilt box from inside.

Quilt box filled with wood chips.

pics did not come up 

looked like they start with a 1x 3 spacer


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## Falls-Acre (May 13, 2009)

My resources are more limited, but I like the idea of providing some kind of insulation once it becomes very cold. I'm much farther south than MN or MI, and our winters are neither vicious nor terribly long, but we have had some bitter ones and we have had some heavy snowfall at times. I want to give my young hive the best chance possible to survive the winter. I'll continue to feed as long as they appear to be taking the syrup. What temp is usual to expect to need to insulate the hive?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

There are many a remedy for moisture in the bee hive during winter. Some common ones I have seen are a third deep filled with leaves placed on top of the bees. A bale of straw broken open and the leaves or sections are placed on the top bars with a third deep. And the one I consider the best is the home made burlap bag filled with cedar chips placed in a third deep above the bees. 

A old friend did the home made burlap trick. told me that in the 40 years he had kept bees and expermints he had done it was best. The bag kept stuff from going between the frames and the cedar chips would wick more moisture from the hive and hold it than any thing else. A side benifit they would dry out stored in a dry location and used again and again.

 Al


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## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

alleyyooper said:


> There are many a remedy for moisture in the bee hive during winter. Some common ones I have seen are a third deep filled with leaves placed on top of the bees. A bale of straw broken open and the leaves or sections are placed on the top bars with a third deep. And the one I consider the best is the home made burlap bag filled with cedar chips placed in a third deep above the bees.
> 
> A old friend did the home made burlap trick. told me that in the 40 years he had kept bees and expermints he had done it was best. The bag kept stuff from going between the frames and the cedar chips would wick more moisture from the hive and hold it than any thing else. A side benifit they would dry out stored in a dry location and used again and again.
> 
> Al


ok--so you would take the inner cover off than?? i want to try this--i have the burlap but the only cedar i can find is mulch would that work or would it need to be fine chips?


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## scrapiron (Jul 23, 2011)

mare, any Tractor Supply, Walmart, and most feed stores have Cedar Chips/shavings. Tractor Supply has the best price.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Yes Billie always took the intercover off. The cedar chips he used were the bedding for pets stuff larger sized chips rather than the fine ones.

 Al


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

I have the bigger chips ,, but not ceder they should work just as good .. I use them for the smoker so there dry ..


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I think they will work OK Tom. I think the Idea behind cedar chips is they are easy to buy in bags and I *think *cedar will asorbe more moisture per pound.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

More wind break.




























 Al


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