Hi there overseas!
 
I'd like to have some explanation about wrapping and unwrapping:
Do you really wrap your hives totally for overwintering so that the
bees don't get out at all untill there are some flowers around or
what? I couldn't figure this out from the discussion.
 
I mean that we here in Finland just prevent snow or mice and other
small animals from going in to a hive by closing the "door" or how do
you call it, but as soon as there is enough sun for the bees to fly
we let them go for their spring cleaning flight, and at that time
there is normally still some snow out of the hives, so you really can
see the amount of the garbage they carry out - the snow is brown
around the hives, not white anymore. And I guess that's important for
the later robustness of the community - all the dead or not healthy
specimens are also carried out from the hive during the cleaning
flights and the next night they will be freezed to death as well as
the possible mites or whatever they are carrying with them.
 
Well, that's the system in our climate -  no flowering yet, no
snow on the ground either but snowing a little bit the day before
yesterday, still waiting for the lovely warm spring days with a lot
of birds coming from south...soon the summer is here.
 
smiles from Helsinki
 
Aana
 
Aana Vainio
Department of Applied Zoology
P.O.Box 27 (Viikki C)
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki
FINLAND
Tel: + 358 9 708 5662 Fax: + 358 9 708 5463