bomb cyclone

Winter storm Grayson brought cold temperatures to Atlanta, but no snow.  Use this link to see NOAA's satellite image.

Here's a photo of the upside down telescoping cover.  Warm moist bee respiration which left the inner cover notch, condenses on the cold telescoping cover and froze as a white ring.  Click the image for more detail.

17 °F temperatures encouraged me to add the bee cozy hive wrap now.    The hive wrap is designed for 10 frame equipment, so easily slips over my 8 frame boxes and cloake board.   I'm overwintering a tall vertical double stack of hives.   The stack contains a cloake board, where I removed the cloake board's sliding floor leaving its queen excluder to separate the two hives.  I added two overlapping cozys on the upper large stack of boxes and one cozy to cover the smaller lower stack of boxes.

From the bottom up, here are the hive elements at this time.

• screen bottom board with counting board insert removed
• 1 bee cozy hive wrap surrounding 1 deep box and 3 medium boxes 
• cloake board with integrated queen excluder and sliding floor removed
• 2 overlapping bee cozy hive wraps surrounding 2 deep boxes and 3 medium boxes
• inner cover with top notch ventilation
• two sheets of 3/4 inch XPS insulation 
• telescoping cover
• white corrugated plastic sheet overhang
• concrete pavers on top

condensation: outside versus inside the hive

This fall, water was discovered between the telescoping cover and inner cover.  The dawn temperature of  45 °F, thin plywood construction of the telescoping cover and warm moist hive air is a recipe for condensation.  In the morning, I also discovered condensation on the landing board near the reduce hive entrance.

Using 2 pieces of Styrofoam Block 18"x12"x1" from Micheals, a 1" slab of Styrofoam is fitted to the inside of the telescoping cover.  The small bee escape notch on the top side of the brushy mountain inner cover permits some warm moist air to leak from the hive.  See the photo--Now, the warm moist air leaking from the hive is seen appropriately condensing on the outside of the telescoping cover.   Problem solved, I no longer find water between the telescoping cover and inner cover.