First spring visit

[addame]

Hi All,

Last week, I have visited for the first time my five hives. And they are all doing fine. I was agreeably surprised that for the second year I have no loss!!! It has to be noted that last year I had only one hive :-)
This year, I overwintered four hives with two deep boxes and one with only one deep box.

As it is still cold here, I have only removed one insulation and I have feed them with 15LBs of home made candy (3LBs per hive). I also mixed to the candy a protein supplement + a little bit of vinegar. 

May be it will be of interest for some of you; for the insulation, I have used two types of materials.
In fact, as winters here are very cold (-4f is not uncommon here in Rimouski (QC)), I used a double insulation; one with aluminium double bulb and another with a 1.5inch Styrofoam (see pictures bellow). I also added top feeders to the hives filled with a cellulose based insulation material.






Here is also a picture of one of my hives taken few weeks ago (22 mars). It was almost not visible :-)



I have read that it is important to have air flow to avoid condensation. I have to admit that it is not the case with my hives: by adding plastic bags on top of the insulation, there is no way for the condensation to escape. Even with this, no one of my hives died! I have to admit that when I opened my hives last week there were a lot of waters droplets between the boxes and the insulation and also I noticed some moisture outside the boxes (and few traces inside). So why I haven't made small holes to let the condensation go out? As I said earlier, I used feeders filled with cellulose-based insulation which may absorb the condensation.

What do you think of that?

Ohh, you can notice dead bees on the snow ... do you think it is a good idea to put a screen to force bees stay inside until there is no more snow?

[Perry]

Addame:

First, Congratulations on your success. Canada is a big place, you haven't narrowed down your profile, but I am going to guess you are further north in Quebec or Ontario, or maybe even the prairies.
To be honest with you, I am very surprised that you are doing so well considering the absence of upper ventilation. I know that in nature there is no upper vent in a tree (that I'm aware of) but I have found it neccessary where I live.

As far as putting a screen on to keep the bees at home, don't do it. Bees need to take cleansing flights and if they are not allowed to do so when the opportunity arises, you may end up with a mess inside your hive. Dead bees in the snow is a "normal" sort of thing to expect at this time of year.

[Dunkel]

Every time I see pictures like that, I am amazed.  I really don't see how you guys do it.  I have enough trouble pulling our winters and getting them until they can actually make a little.