I think by now it's a safe bet for us to pack up the summer shorts.

Which reminds me, it's time to put the insulating covers onto the bee hives and do any last minute prep work for winter that I may have procrastinated doing.

This hive top feeder seen below on one of the hives is a great example of procrastination. I meant to take it off a few weeks ago, but have been busy.

OK, I haven't been that busy. I'll admit its more like I was lazy.



I took the feeder off, and knocked all the bees clung to the bottom of the feeder back onto the top bars.


All the hives got a sheet of insulation above their inner cover to help prevent condensation and channel moisture out of the hive.

If you're interested, you can peek at the short writeup on how I made them last year.



I didn't have enough foam for one of the hives, so I simply provided extra ventilation by placing bottle caps on the front edge of the inner cover to prop up the outer cover.



I think it was a worthy cap...



Maybe I should go get some more of these caps off of the bottles sitting in the fridge. You know-- just in-case I lose a few. I'd feel better having a few extra caps around if I needed them. 

:)