Two weeks ago, we closed up our hives for the winter. We consolidated all the honey frames into three boxes. Then we add a sugar feeder and add 7 pounds of granulated sugar in the box. I also added a frame feeder holder inside the box and poured sugar into the frame.
We then put the inner cover and staple a mesh over the hole of the inner cover. We staple mesh to the hole because we don't want any bees climbing up to the box above it.
Above it, we then put an empty super on top of the sugar box and fill it with cedar chips. Cedar naturally keeps the pests at bay, such as mites, fleas, ticks, termites etc. The cedar chips also helps with the moisture, it wicks away any of the condensation that builds up. We also drill a little hole in this box to help with ventilation.
We wrap the entire hive with tar paper to help insulate it and keep out the moisture.
I always get a little sad when I wrap the hives for the winter. It'll be months before I see them again. The Buddha statue will hopefully watch over the ladies and hope they all survive the winter.
Here are the hives all wrapped up. See you in the spring ladies.
