Hi Joe C.,

> Keith:  I have tried and use the insulated telescoping top and it works 
fine.  Tried two winters now and on it's third. 
>

I was replying as it relates to the hand made Polynucs and response to Joe W. concerns with the acrylic inner cover I use on the Polynucs I constructed. The covers on my Polynucs are already insulation seeing they are simply a piece of high density 2" insulfoam board. There was a concern that the acrylic would get cold because of the edges being exposed under the top board cover to the weather. I really do not think the acrylic will be affected as Joe W. thinks they will be under the insulation boards and with the heat of the cluster keeping the underside of the acrylic warm with the heat of the cluster rising. 

Since the subject or thread is nucs here then are these hives you are writing about here nucs or full-size colonies in one, two, or three story units.

> I have others 
in a row that do not have the same top as a test for this winter in the bus.
>

I have noticed with other beekeepers doing inside wintering that there is a tremendous amount of extra and heavy work involved in doing this and there is a whole set of problems that arise from locating them inside and then transferring them outside again in the spring, or are you going to keep them continuously inside? That in itself can also have its difficulties, so how will you handle these colonies located inside this bus?

>  Installed the Kona Queens today as well.  Another test is fall/winter 
requeening.
>

How are you doing this as temperatures are very low here in Alaska at this time and brooding at this time should be shut down at this time of season if a colony is to be expected to winter without using up much needed stores of honey and pollen. I would think that requeening up here should have been done in our Alaskan fall which occurs much earlier than it does in the lower 48 states. When I requeen a colony I usually do it during a period that colonies would be doing it on there own up here which is during the swarm season, but I do breeding and requeen with my Alaskan genetics so the genetics will be from colonies that have wintered well previously. It would seem to me that it is much to late to requeen at this time, how are you performing this task at this late date in our Alaska weather? I do pray you well with doing this and look forward to hearing more about this. 

 . ..   Keith Malone, Chugiak, Alaska USA, http://www.cer.org/,
c(((([ , Apiarian, http://takeoff.to/alaskahoney/,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Norlandbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ApiarianBreedersGuild/

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