Hi Dick & All

I am on the 80 degree west line making me almost due north of your location in NE Ohio about 80 miles from the north shore of Lake Erie.  I imagine that your snow load is higher than mine due to our common NW wind?  I also use standard wooden hive bodies but one single deep(9 frames) as a brood chamber.  Each hive sits on a screened bottom board open to the ground until late November early December depending on the weather.  I close off the screen with an inch of styrofoam supported by a slab of 3/4” plywood at that time.  The entrance is closed down to 1 1/2”x1/4” and the inner cover is flipped so that the upper entrance is open on the same side as the lower entrance eliminating cross ventilation.  A fitted piece of 1 1/2” styrofoam goes on top with a black coreplast(plastic signboard like a cardboard box with no bottom) sleeve fitted over the whole works.  I cut a 2” round hole, in the sleeve, near but not directly opposite the upper entrance.  The outer cover keeps the snow & rain off the 4 overlapping flaps of the sleeve.  A column of vapour can often be seen leaving the hole in the sleeve on still cold days.  The inside of the sleeve is most often covered in frost, melting & running down the sleeve to the ground in milder sunny weather.  The inside of the brood chamber is always dry with never any mould.  I have wintered my singles like this since the late ‘90s.  I find that six or more seams of bees when packed results in successful wintering.

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada 44N80W

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