Hi Ian,

My hives do get covered with snow. I never check, shovel snow away from, or
drag dead bees out of the hive entrances. After doing all the right upper
entrance stuff for decades, I did have some concerns during the first few
years of tests. Years ago, when the test hives were buried in snow for some
weeks, I chickened out and removed the plugs out of about half the upper
entrances. :>) But I'm not concerned about it now.

Without the upper draft, my bees will fly at lower ambient temperatures and
take more frequent, shorter duration cleansing flights. With the upper
draft, the flights were less frequent and much more intense. At the first
good day there would be massive bee flight, lots of dead bees in the snow,
and yellow bee manure on everything including the beekeeper if he's in the
yard. :>) I haven't seen that with the upper entrances closed. The bees are
much less stessed.

Regards
Dennis

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