> Some years my hives are totally buried by snow. So deep you need a long
> handled shovel, handle first, to find them. If you dig the hives out of
> the snow you'll see what I mean. There is a chamber formed around the hive,
> where there is no snow. Did it melt? I would think so.

> And, around dead hives? The snow is packed in tight around the hive. Dig
> out the front of  a row of beehives when the snow is deep like this, and
> you can tell which are dead or alive, by the "igloos," or lack of, around
them.

Doesn't the observation above imply that there was very limited
ventilation for these buried hives?  If such a small amount of heat
(as is generated by bee respiration and radiated heat from the cluster)
is able to melt snow away from the hive, this would seem to only
be possible if there was little or no ventilation.

I'd call the melted snow a "bad" sign, but here in Virginia, we have
cold AND damp, unlike your drier cold snaps up there in the "People's
Republic of Vermont".

         jim (Dr. Martin Luther King: "I have a dream..."
              Dr. Howard Dean: "I have a SCREAM...")

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