It is important to have good top insulation for conditions like these. I 
find a slab of Styrofoam 2" thick improves their morale a lot. There should 
not be a top entrance if they are in real trouble - it chills them because 
they are right at the top. If they really cold and starving they will not 
move even to an inside frame feeder - they are dead set on keeping their 
brood warm.  It is sometimes helpful to pour a 1/2 cup of warm 2:1 sugar 
syrup over the cluster.

I built and installed  glass inner covers on two of my hives this spring and 
there are some things that show up really clearly.

The uninsulated one with the top entrance has no water drops on the glass 
but the top of the combs are covered in frost. The (small) cluster is jammed 
to one side of the top entrance and the bees are inactive.

The insulated one (strong)  has 1" diameter entrance about 15" below the 
inner cover. The cluster is at the front of the hive in contact with the 
entrance and is active. There are water droplets and fog on the inner cover 
near the walls of the box. I tilted the hive so that the water droplets now 
collect at the back and do not drip on the cluster. I believe that the bees 
cluster during the winter in contact with the entrance, and if it is low 
they tend to use the lower stores first, leaving more in the top box.

There is a trade off between a top entrance which provides some ventilation 
to keep them dry and a lower one which keeps them warmer. If the snow and 
mud ever go away here, I will go to my outyards and move the entrance plugs 
from the lower position to the upper one.



Best regards,

Donald Aitken

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