OAV questions

[Yukon Bees]

If you look at the pictures of the hive painted red. I keep a piece of plywood underneath of the hive where I place the vaporizer and I use old t-shirts to seal the side and rear openings and the front entrances. You need to remove your insert.

[Dallasbeek]

Okay, I see it now.  Do you leave the SBB on the hives all winter up there?  Nice looking hives.

[Yukon Bees]

Yep... I also overwinter without the tray inserted. The condensation drains out of the hive through the SBB. I put piece of 2x4 to cover the sides though to keep the mice out from underneath the hive. Once snow falls I pile snow all around them for extra insulation/wind protection. I lean a piece of plywood on the front to protect the entrance from getting buried in snow.

[Dallasbeek]

Cozy.  Does it warm up enough for cleansing flights after the snow gets piled up?

[Yukon Bees]

Maybe late Feb if we get a warm spell. They are pretty much stuck in the hive till late March with 1st willow pollens mid April (still snow on the ground though).

[Groundhawg]

If they make it all the way to the tray. Good chance they will catch another bee on the way down.
Powdered sugar isn't healthy for bees.

Store-bought may not be healthy for bees, but if you run granulated sugar through a blender to make it super-fine, it doesn't have the corn starch that the store stuff has, so it's just sugar.  Is sugar not healthy for bees?

Pouring any sugar around my hives would bring ants from the next county and I battle them enough now with the local critters.