Thinking ahead to winter

[Kris^]

My hives are usually set in groups of six in my home beeyard (that is, when I don't have a few set out in local farm fields). Definitely by winter, they will all be here. In past years I have individually wrapped each hive with black paper and insulated the top, after putting a candy board and upper entrance on. This year, though, I thought I might push the hives up against each other into 6-hive groups with insulation all around the outside surfaces and wrap them as a unit, with the same considerations for entrance cutouts, etc.

Would placing the hives up against each other be a good thing or a bad thing? I'd think that being that close together and wrapped jointly would serve to conserve heat retention, similarly to stacking nucs. I also anticipate the possibility of drifting initially after I push them together, which I may be able to alleviate. I won't be doing this before November, maybe into December, depending on forcasts.

Are there any downsides to this plan?

[MountainCamp]

I don't think that in Williamstown, NJ that you need to go to all of the trouble and expense of doing a 6-pack set up for the winter.

I personally wrap my hives singularly to allow for solar gain during the fall / winter / spring.

We see temps in the -25F range for lows.

I have found that my losses in winter were not from low temperatures as they occurred mainly after the deep cold was over and the colonies were raising brood again. They became separated from their food stores and anchored by the brood.

I have gone to using an empty box on the brood boxes, using the empty box for feeder jars and for the mid winter period, paper and granular sugar. The feed on the top bars and the felt paper wrap allows the bees access the food as a group and hold cluster.