Perhaps I should jump into the Homosote discussion.  I have never used the
homosote covers, but listened VERY attentively to Tony Jadzak (State Bee
Inspector in Maine) at EAS at MMA as he described how he uses them for
wintering his hives.  To prep his hives for winter, Tony turns his inner
covers shallow side towards the bees, deep side up.  On top of the inner
cover he places a homosote board cut to the same dimensions as the inner
cover.  He cuts a troth into the homosote board from the center (which is
above the inner cover hole) to the front of the board (Bill Truesdale wrote
about this this morning).  Tony then wraps his hive in tar-paper that neatly
folds over the top edges of the homosote board, with a hole cut at the troth
for an upper entrance.  Once wrapped, the telescoping cover goes on top,
shoved forward so as not to cover the upper entrance.

Thus prepared, there is a space between the top of the inner cover and the
bottom of the homosote board.  Ths space provides two things, 1) a passage
for bees to get to the upper entrance and 2) an area where he can put dry
sugar (if needed) for emergency winter feeding.  The homosote board itself
provides the moisture collection as has been described in the past few days'
discussions, which serves a dual purpose of keeping the bees dry while
providing a water source for the bees if/when needed.  Tony stated that he
expects to see a wet spot in the homosote board when he checks in the winter
(say February), and in fact, he is only concerned about the hive if he does
NOT see the wet spot.  A big wet spot is a signal that all is well within
the hive.

Regarding the tar-paper wrap, Tony was clear to make the point that the
tar-paper's purpose is NOT to cut drafts.  Rather, its main purpose is as a
heat sink to absord late winter sun rays and encourage the bees to take
cleansing flights on days when the window of opportunity may not be long and
possibly missed if the hive did not have the benefit of the wrap.

As stated, I've never used the homosote board.  I've always used an empty
super stuffed with straw to wick away moisture.  I've never been real
thrilled with the nasty wet straw in the spring, and figure the homosote
board may be a better tool and definitely a lot easier to schlepp into the
apiary than bales of straw.

Aaron Morris - not homosote-phobic!