Sealed with celotex

My niece being here, I decided that today I would insulate the hives for the cold months ahead and clad them with celotex. As two hands are not nearly enough for this, I was counting on Natalie to help me. It should have been a simple operation, as by now the bees should have all be inside the hive, clustered and keeping warm. However, as I have remarked previously, things with animals don't necessarily turn out as you expect them to.

Going to the hives with a pile of celotex

Anyway, to start at the beginning: we made our way to the hives, with a pile of celotex, straps to tie them tight and a saw for last minute fitting issues. Natalie had a beesuit on, but I thought I could do without, as there wouldn't be any bees flying around, would there?

Insulating the roof

When I got to the Moon, I realised the mouse guard had slipped. I don't know when this happened, possibly on Monday during the storm, possibly earlier. I haven't been to the hives for a fortnight, so anything is possible, really. When I fixed it, a host of bees immediately shot out from the hive, looking for trouble. Natalie ran away screaming, despite wearing a beesuit, and my sister (who took the photos) was stung almost immediately. It was at this moment that I decided to don a beesuit as the Moon colony was more active than it should have been.

Resizing celotex

After that initial shock, it was more or less plain sailing: I removed the contact feeder, left the eke and put celotex in that, as roof insulation. As those slabs were too large, I had to engage in some last minute DIY, sawing them down to size.

Natalie holding the celotex while I tie it down

Then with Natalie's help, I strapped four slabs of celotex to the hive walls.

Last slab of four

I did the same for the Star, where the bees were much calmer to not being active at all. The only thing I noticed is that their contact feeder was still pretty full, which may have to do with the syrup having crystallised against the mesh of the contact feeder. Am now worried whether they have enough winter supplies.

Two hives snugly wrapped up in space-age insulation

Somehow have the fear that come spring I won't have a sinlge colony - both having fallen victim to bad winter management.