The excitement continues as I finally got all my hives protected with 6mm / quarter-inch mesh yesterday. I’m also pleased with one hive where the bees are clustering well beneath their honey and the hive is dry as a bone. I’m not going to mess with it.

It’s a 3-medium hive painted black, no wrap, the bottom entrance with mesh but wide open for ventilation, an open top entrance, a piece of silver bubble wrap insulation over the inner cover, the inner cover hole covered with screen but open, a ventilation rim over that, and a small hive pillow inside the ventilation rim.

00:00 — Slightly defensive bees.

00:30 — Inner cover hole propolised.

00:40 — Silver bubble wrap insulation over inner cover.

00:45 — Ventilation rim.

01:04 — Bees clustering high on a warm day.

01:25 — Mesh covering bottom entrance.

02:20 — Adding quarter-inch / 6mm mesh.

04:20 — Tacking on more mesh.

04:45 — Tacks instead of pushpins.

05:50 — My dry hive set up.

07:10 — Propolis.

07:30 — Summary of beeyard.

07:50 — A problem with hive wraps.

08:40 — Pros and cons of hive wraps.