Finman,
I was wondering if you would mind passing on some in depth information on overwintering your bees. My father and I have tried it for the last 2 years with no luck. In the spring the bees would all be dead and there was still honey left in the hive. I have read about the terrarium heater idea and think it may work for us. I was looking for information like: What wattage do you use? Do you run them all winter or just the coldest days? Is there a concern about overheating the hive?
Temperatures in this area regularly get to -30 C, -22 F and often exceed -40 C, -40 F.
Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks very much!
Your winter is harder than ours in southern Finland. In Lapland they build a store room or basement , where temperature is -5C.
Also the bee race is importand, is it able to ower winter.
Also you can build "big box" and you can put there with thermostat controlled "frost guard".
But it is better to find local bee keeper and ask him/her what are your conditions.
I really had 4 hives last winter and they had 7W heaters. One colony had 3 frames and it went through winter very well.