It's very local as others have said. Here in Minnesota, we have more dry air winters, so I don't worry about the moisture problems the northeast and northwest beekeepers would experience. I do not use upper entrances to conserve heat. I am running at 17% winter loss on 170 hives this year and my winter loss went way down with OA vapor fall treatments. This year I have seen no nosema which really has surprised me but it seems this is confirmed with other info that OA cleans this up.
It has been a milder winter here to say the least. Lots of warm records were broken in February in MN.
I run mostly 2 deeps with some singles and nucs. I do use excluders.
Jeff Dankey
Minnetonka Gold
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