night night

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The time had come. Colder weather, shorter days… winter is coming and the honeybees needed more substantial protection than what their hive alone could provide. Enter tar paper (above), saved from last year. You can tell by the grooves and the tiny hole that it had already been used for this purpose. That made putting it on the hives a bit easier than last year, when I was fighting with a large roll of the stuff while trying not to get stung. This time I just followed the grooves and lined up the holes with the upper exits of the hives. Easy peasy.

Here’s one papered and the other waiting:

A few days after I papered them, I brought some straw bales to the farm and made a little windbreak around the level of the entrance.

And they’re done! I even remembered to put the entrance reducers in properly, unlike last year. Here’s what they shouldn’t look like.

Night night sweet honeybees, please make it through another winter ok.

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