All wrapped up.

[Perry]

I should finish today wrapping everything up for winter. We have had exceptionally warm weather this fall so I have held off as long as I could.
I am trying different things over the last year or so and have settled on a simpler process instead of tarpaper. I buy black pallet shrink wrap now, and after I slide a piece of styrofoam between the hives I wrap the 2 of them together. They share a common side which will help. For yards that are really in a bad windy area I may incorporate a sheet across the back of the 2 hives as well (next year I'll try it).
There is most definitely a lot less to carry around when using the pallet wrap, one roll about does all my yards and nucs as well.

[SmokeyBee]

Always amazed at what you have to do to care for that many bees, especially in your climate.

[Perry]

Believe it or not, I think we have some "advantages" to keeping bees up here. Our winters are long enough to either kill off bad bugs (moths) or really knock back others (varroa, maybe SHB if it arrives).

[G3farms]

I think it also stays cold enough that the bees don't break cluster several times a month and eat their honey stores before spring blooms break open. Some time we have temp swings where bees will get to fly many times during the winter. Everything has its plus and minus though.

Perry you sure do put in a bunch of work on your bees.......ATTA BOY!!

[Wandering Man]

Looks good!

[yukonjeff]

That's a great idea ! I never knew they made black shrinkwrap. will try it next year for sure. Thanks
Do you winter in double deeps ? upper entrance ?

[Jen]

Hi Perry, the white structures on top of the hives, what are they?

And This year I'm going to scoot my nucs together like I have seen in some of your pics. I have three nucs this winter.

[Perry]

Hey Jen. Some of my hives have granite cylinder cores as weight on the top cover. I found a monument place that had all these granite "cores" cut out of headstones that people would place ashes in. A jar of honey got me a couple dozen of them and they are quite heavy and work well. The white stuff you see underneath those cores is a piece of the styrofoam I removed from the center of my insulation between my inner and outer covers. That is where I place fondant on any hives I think might be light.  During the winter if I feel the hives get too light and I see they are consuming the fondant I simply add more.

[efmesch]

PERRY says: " I slide a piece of styrofoam between the hives I wrap the 2 of them together."
EF asks: Why do you put the styrofoam between the hives?  I would think that styrofoam would provide more effective insulation on the outer (not shared) walls of the hive and have the shared walls touching or as close as possible to each other.

[Jen]

Perry, I love the ingenuity of beekeepers.

Also, I'm wondering same as Ef... in that why the styro between the boxes, where as I seen your pics of nucs pushed completely together to share warmth?

[Wandering Man]

Hey Jen. Some of my hives have granite cylinder cores as weight on the top cover. I found a monument place that had all these granite "cores" cut out of headstones that people would place ashes in. A jar of honey got me a couple dozen of them and they are quite heavy and work well.

My mother in law died before my father in law.  After the headstone was set in place we all went to the grave site to see it.  My father in law was asked how he felt about seeing his name on the head stone.  His response:  "I feel like I'm going to be very careful"

I wonder if your bees are thinking the same thing.

[Perry]

First I will address the hives.

Because I run telescoping covers I cannot push 2 hives together, they are kept roughly 2" apart because of the covers. This space would fill with cold air and not really accomplish much. By placing the styrofoam in between them and taking up that space they then share a common side away from the cold and wind. I used to just wrap everything as singles but doing things this way I have 1 common side and cut my wrapping time and material almost in half. If I ever came across even more cheap/free styrofoam I would put a piece across the backside of the 2 hives before I wrapped thereby only having 2 sides open to the elements (I have already done this on 2 of my more exposed windy yards).

As far as my nucs go though, without the telescoping covers I just shove them together as best I can, and use styrofoam on the 2 outer sides of the entire bundle, but not on the 2 ends where the entrances are. A big piece of styrofoam covers the whole works and that's it. The nucs actually only have 1 side each (the front) exposed to the outside unprotected that way.

[efmesch]

Perry,
I'm not trying to change your beekeeping equipment (I too use only telescoping covers---but I don't have to contend with winters like yours and don't wrap my hives) but wonder if it might not be worth trying "migratory covers"
[take a look at these--they could allow closer stacking]
https://gabees.com/product-category/hive-covers-tops/cypress-cover/

They are also a lot easier to build and are much lighter.  I had one for many years and found it easier to work the hives than the telescoping roofs.

[Jen]

Ef, I like the migratory covers as well. Presently the lids on my nucs are telescoping covers. I think hubby and I will either alter the telescoping covers by taking the sides off, or build new migratory covers to use during the winter months.

[apisbees]

Push the hives tight together and let the cover edge sit on top of the Styrofoam a strip of tar paper if there is 2 pices of foam on the joint

[Perry]

Not knowing when I started this adventure, I stuck to what was most popular and then just stuck with it. At one point I thought about switching to migratory lids but right around the same time I decided to stop going to pollination so didn't bother. I'm so invested now it doesn't make sense to switch at this point.
That's a good thought for another thread I think I'll start.....hmmmmm.