First, all beekeeping is local.

And I mean local.

I live in Maine and never wrap and have not had a problem with cold.
But I live 8 miles from the ocean and on the Kennebeck river, so I
have a more temperate local climate that some of my friends who live
inland and wrap. My hives are also protected from wind by a pine
forest on their northern side and completely open to the southern sun.
Add that they are on a slope and you have just about ideal conditions
for overwintering. Our max low is -10F and we seldom get that low.
Usually we are in the teens and just above zero for any length of
time.

The Hive and Honey Bee notes that colonies overwinter better when the
temperature is slightly below freezing than slightly above. Another
reason I leave them unwrapped, to keep them cold.

So when you hear some say that you must wrap and some say you do not,
look at the local conditions.

Some interesting stuff in the archives about this, especially about
not trusting latitude for how cold it might be.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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