> When I was feeding with drums, I cut horizontal slits in the sides and 
> hammered the metal above the slit outward. With the lid on, rain and cows 
> could not get in but the bees could get in through the slits.

Yes, I still have some of those, but, for whatever reason, did not use 
them - yet - this year.   It seems we have had so many hot, dry falls that I 
guess I had figured they were unnecessary.  Wrong.

I also have not drum fed for many years.  In fact, I did not feed at all for 
years until Deanno reminded me how important it is to kill all those gut 
bacteria so the bees winter better.

All kidding aside, I have been expanding like mad.  I only had three hives 
three years ago and I am wrapping at least 75 this year.  Further, although 
I did not extract this year, I want to ensure heavy hives for winter and 
lots of feed frames for splitting (I hope) next spring (assuming we have a 
spring).

I winter in as many boxes as the hives occupy and that ranges from two to 
four boxes.  Any which have bees in only one box and are still viable  (3 
out of 75 so far) still get a good brood chamber placed underneath and 
winter in two boxes since I have had bad luck wintering one box high.  That 
also allows for the fact that such colonies often get up to size in spring 
and need the space.

> I am now using just hive top feeders. They are sucking down about a half 
> gallon a day.

I'm using frame feeders and finding they are emptying quickly, too, even in 
the cool weather.  My hives are already heavy and I am just feeding to fill 
in any gaps and make up for the disturbance I am causing when I pull out 
some undrawn foundation, replacing it with dark brood comb.   The scale 
hives have been neither losing or gaining weight at recently since they were 
taking open feed at a rate that equated, it seems, to their ongoing weight 
loss.  Last year that loss was about three pounds a week.  Adding the inside 
feeders in the past few days confounds the records currently, though.

> I am nearly ready to wrap.

I've been wrapping as I go through the hives.  This is the earliest I ever 
wrapped, other than the year I left the bottom two boxes on some yards 
wrapped all summer (worked OK).

My experience with the EPS boxes made me think that early wrapping might be 
a good idea and also the memory that I wrapped later than ideal last year --  
January, due the frigid December --  has been an incentive.  I have always 
like to wrap in November or December and I kept waiting for a warm spell so 
my hands wouldn't freeze and did not get one.  I think the bees in wood 
boxes suffered a bit as a result and this past year the EPS boxes did 
noticeably better than wood.

The cold, wet weather the past weeks has been a prompt to wrap as well.  Of 
course, now that I have only 24 hives to go, we see some 25+ degree 
(Celsius) weather coming up.  This should be interesting.  The bees were 
hanging out a bit today and it was 5 degrees C.

For that matter, people always ask at what temp can one work on brood 
chambers.  I have been working on my own brood chambers the past few days 
since the local beekeepers consider the weather too cold for inspection and 
I have some time available, which I will not later.

My yard is sheltered, though, and I had no trouble working my strong hives 
intensively without a veil, sometimes taking down all boxes and even taking 
out the occasional frames of brood and occasionally leaving them out for a 
few minutes.

The weather has been overcast and above freezing while I work, but never 
above 6 degrees Celsius.  I only work in the afternoon from noon to five. 
The ground has been dry enough that most of the dropped bees have made it in 
just fine.  bees were flying to the open drums all the while.  That was my 
cue.

Today was different, though.  It was a bit warmer and I did hit one hive 
that made me put on a veil for a few minutes.  I had also moved the drums 
under a roof to keep water out and the bees were not finding them.  That 
seemed to make the bees a little groggier than they were at even cooler 
temps.  There were noticeably more bees with no fuel in them which could not 
warm up enough to return to the hives if they fell outside -- in spite of 
the warmer day.  Seems the foraging in drums was raising their activity 
level a bit previously.

(I was feeding as I go, so these hives I mention above had no feed yet 
except drum feed on previous days.  The hives with feed from previous days 
and which were wrapped were active, with bees patrolling outside the 
entrances).

> Since this is my first year wintering with auger holes, I am curious about 
> your treatment of bottom entrances.

I don't know if it matters on triples, and maybe doubles, except for mice. 
I am reducing them all to about 1-1/2 x 3/8", though, but I have a 1" auger 
hole open in each box.  Any holes in the back are plugged.

Many of my hives are the BeeMax boxes this year since I had very good 
results with them once I drilled holes in them.  There is no other top 
entrance, and I stack three pillows on top under the lid, the same as my 
wood hives..

Speaking of the BeeMax boxes, I am extremely disappointed in them from the 
point of view of strength.  They are flimsy substitute for the Swienty 
version which is far stronger.   Although the EPS is strong, the design is 
flawed and the corner joints, even when glued have only a two small 
cross-sections holding them together.

The BeeMax boxes are hardly strong enough to stand up to being handled when 
the frames are full, and break if an empty stack being painted is blown over 
by the wind.  Prying frames sideways or pushing in tight-fitting gummed-up 
frames pop the sides apart a bit, causing gaps.   On the other hand, the 
Swienty ones are one-piece and relatively tough.  I think the Swienty EPS is 
a little denser, too.

For those with far too much time on their hands, and/or an insomnia problem, 
I document all this and more, often with pictures in my diary at 
www.honeybeeworld.com/diary. 

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