Well, we went visiting yesterday and on the way, we went to a few
beeyards at around noon.
 
There is about 5 inches of snow on the ground and the temps are running
about -20 at nite to -5 in the day.  Celcius of course.
 
At this time of year here (near Calgary), it seems to me that the sun
rises at about 8 AM and goes only about 16 degrees above the horizon (at
winter solstice) before retreating to set in the southwest around 4:30 PM.
(I really should pay better attention).
 
The variation between yards and hives was interesting.  There was a light
breeze that was more obvious in some spots than others.
 
This year we wrapped, using several schemes, seeing as we expanded and ran
out of our normal wraps.
 
1. Our normal wrap is a plastic/kodel quilt (R7)  that goes around four hives
crowded together on a forklift pallet (two facing east, two west).  Inner
covers are used and the summer lid left off.  Upper ventillation is
available through a slot in the front of the inner cover that matches a
hole through the quilt, and is restricted by a 1 inch bore hole in a 5
inch square piece of plywood screwed over the opening. At least R20
insulation is piled on top, and covered with a piece of plywood.
 
2. This year we also used packs consisting of two rows of ten hives each
-- back to back -- facing east and west -- and covered with 6 mil plastic.
R20 insulation was piled on the lids under the plastic and the whole mess
was pulled tight and fastened with lath strips -- once again screwed on
(using 1 5/8 inch drywall screws and a cordless drill) along the bottom,
just above the entrance.  I never use entrance reducers during winter, the
wrap covers the entrance quite well.
 
There was some variation in (2) A few had the hives crowded together (no
summer lids) Others had the summer lids still on resulting in gap between
hives.  All (2 and 3) used a 1 inch auger hole three inches up from the
bottom of the upper brood chamber as a vent/flight hole. The wrap was held
tight aginst the hive at each vent as in (1).
 
2b. Some of (2) also had R7 insulation on the vertical surfaces.
 
3. We also had several single rows of 10 with summer lids wrapped as in (2),
but facing south.
 
What we saw:
 
Generally, there wasn't a lot of flight in the more exposed yards.  The
four packs (1) -- with the higher vents (above the cluster) had less
entrance activity than the ones with auger holes, although a few were
cleaning out from the wide open bottom (floor) entrance a bit as we
watched, and live bees were often visible in the vents.
 
In the warmer yards there was some flight for cleansing, but on
overall average most bees flying were lost -- on average there was very
little flight.
 
In one sheltered yard (2b) there were several hives very active and one
even with a small cluster outside the vent.  Active bees were seen in 75%
of the entrances there.
 
The rows (3) were in sheltered yard.  They had noticable more flight and
entrance activity than four packs (1) in this yard. Several hives were
taking short cleansing flights.
 
In rows, end hives did not seem any more likely to be active than centre
(warmer) hives.
 
I'm running out of time now and getting a little bored writing this, but
may well resume later and also report on relative sucess, so to those
interested: save this somewhere so you will understand what I'm talking
about in future.
 
Also please ask questions, if interested, because it is hard to
anticipate what people would like to know, and what is not obvious and
needs explanation/discussion.
 
If anyone is wondering - I'll also eventually follow up on some matters we
discussed earlier and haven't gotten around to summarising, etc.
 
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                      VE6CFK
Rural Route One, Swalwell,  Alberta  Canada  T0M 1Y0
Phone/Fax: 403 546 2588      Email: [log in to unmask]