Mid Michigan, Question on wintering my hive?

[harvey]

I only have one hive started from a swarm on May 30Th,  two deep brood boxes, second box is very heavy, all frames full, mostly honey.  Bottom box has three frames barely drawn, rest is mix of brood and honey,  I put a super on a couple of weeks ago hoping to get some honey off of the golden rod that is starting to bloom. I figure four more weeks of good goldenrod?   What do I need to do for this hive in preparation for winter?    When should I pull the super?  Should I put straw bales around the hive to protect from the wind?  What else?

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#winter

[fenux1255]

harvey,  im in the same boat you are i have 2 hives in imlay city, mi and from what i have found and read roofing tar paper is the best to go with and some kind of wind break but not hay maybe a small fence section or somthing is what i plan on using, if in your search u find any new ideas pls drop a line or reply im a first year beek so all i can do is search the internet and use my best guess thanks and best of luck this winter im not sure what michigan has to throw at us this year

fenux

[danno]

Last winter allmost all my colonies survived.  I didn't wrap tar paper around them.  Five of them sat in a full all day sun position when it was out.  I closed bottom boards and to break the west to north winds I put up a temperary fence made from tee-stakes and pallets.     I also put some in my east faceing tool shed.   The rest were tucked into the east side of my barn.   I treated all with apiguard in Aug - Sept.  One thing that i think really helps is the 4" vent boxes that i have on the top of all.  I put about a 3" book of straw in all to soak up moisture and they all got a upper enterance.   My only colonies that died were 2- 2 story nucs that I took into my barn and they lived until Mar but ended up starving with alot of honey still in the bottom box.