The BeeBoy Winter Cover
My name is Dave Hemendinger; know around my house as BeeBoy. I have been a hobbyist beekeeper for 5 years; I started with one hive and have grown to 3. For most hobbyist beekeepers this may not sound too far from the ordinary, for the newbie’s, the thought of 3 hives might seem daunting. What’s different about my bee experience has been my research focus, attention to their details, and my applied techniques. Now I claim to bee no expert and god knows every trip to the hives is a new learning experience for me; but what I have found through my research is for bees to be productive they need certain things. The techniques I currently employ have provided me with exceptional hive populations every year, bountiful harvests of 100+ lbs per hive most seasons, and healthy, thriving, no disease/low mite hives. I have spent many hours in my hives and from that I’ve gained some productive insight, I’ve lost 1 hive to overwintering since I’ve started and that was due to an unsuccessful queen replacement. Many have asked me about the techniques and some have actually seen them in action, I have decided to pass this knowledge on to anyone interested; they’ve all worked well for me and have kept the “girls” happy. I’ll try to provide monthly techniques I use and hopefully some will find them as useful as I have.
BeeBoys’ Winter Cover
With winter approaching, I decided for my first technique to show you my solution to inner/outer cover winter ventilation and feeding. I have found that ventilation and “air buffering” is the key to helping to maintain consistent temperatures in the hive during winter months. This cover technique provides enough ventilation and warmth containment to allow the bees to constantly move the cluster throughout the winter within the upper deep of the hive. With this method they have to work less to maintain internal hive temperatures and subsequently easily make it into springtime with minimal honey stores. The cover design also provides an “air chamber” which acts like the twin-door system in most commercial buildings. Within this buffer I’ve modified the inner cover to provide a pivoting panel to provide access for positioning of candy or pollen without opening up the hive. I then add an intermediate inner cover made of particle board and foam. This second inner cover allows condensation to dissipate in the air chamber as well as some moisture is absorbed by the particle board. This air chamber keeps the candy and pollen moist, one look inside the ventilation holes of these hives in late December and it’s a bustle of activity; by March I have bees pouring out the holes.
I have some pictures showing the modifications to the inner cover and the addition of my insulated intermediate 2nd inner cover, and how the cover system operates; these are all materials easily found and the construction is simple. If anyone is dimensions or tips on how to make your own, let me know.
 | Inner Cover: I modify a normal inner cover by adding a .5”x.5” strip of wood around the cover; I leave an opening in front. |
 | Pivot Opening: I attach one strip in the front so it can pivot. |
 | Ready for placement: Here I’ve placed the pollen and candy. |
 | Intermediate Inner Cover: The intermediate inner cover is made from a ¾” sheet of particle board glued to a piece of 1.5” foundation insulation foam. |
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 | All together: Here are the two inner covers in place for the winter, the outer cover would now be placed on top of the foam. Notice I Have the pivot strip opened and throughout the winter I can feed through it and close when done filling. |
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 | Winter Check: Just pivot the strip and examine with a flashlight. |
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