Part of beekeeping is preparing beehives for winter - Part one

I'll call this post Part One because I'm sure I don't know enough about wintering over my beehives yet.  I still have some studying to do on that.  But last weekend, my friends at imaginethathoney@hotmail.com over in Swanzy, NH came to southern Vermont for our last class.  Wintering over was discussed and you need to prepare the bees for these cold winters here in the northeast.  Here are the steps I learned.

1.  Keep them warm (I will use bales of hay, with a 1 foot air around three sides of the hives and maybe a plywood or other roof).  I picked up 8 bales of hay and hope that will be enough to protect them. I have them in the hive area now, ready to be moved into place when the time is right.

 Move your hives close together to keep them warm.  Mine were only about 4 feet apart so I can move mine a foot or two a week until they are side by side.  I guess the bees get confused and not find their way to their hive if you move it too far too soon.

  Some folks make an insulated ring that slides over the hive (leaving an opening for air and an exit for bees)

2.  Provide the bees with an exit from the hive (they leave hive to go to the bathroom, even in winter)

3.  Plan for condensation that will accumulate inside the hive and if it drips on the bees, you have issues (this is the part I need to figure out as it was new to me). There are various ways to deal with this apparently. I'll get back to you on this part once I've looked at, and understand, the alternatives.

4.  If you have taken too much honey and have not left the bees enough for the winter, then you need to keep feeding them in the winter.  A few weeks ago, toward the end of August, I switched the bees sugar water to a thicker syrup, now two to one.  Two parts sugar to one part water.  On October 1st or so, I will stop supplying syrup.  At that time, it could freeze. So then I will switch to something called "fondant" which is a sugar patty, for lack of a better term, that you place on top of the frames in the hive and that takes the place of the sugar water.  I'll be looking for recipes over the coming days and try to make this fondant myself since I am not sure how much they will need to consume. More on that later.

5.  It's time to put on a mouse guard over the entrance to the hive.  As the weather turns colder, they'll be looking for a home so I believe mine will be going on very soon, if not this morning.  The mouse guard, if you recall looks like this image below with holes large enough for bees to enter and exit, but no mice.

6.  Periodically, I'll need to go to the hive during the winter to clear out any dead bees from the entrance.  Otherwise they could clog up the entrance and living bees wouldn't be able to get outside.

7.  Inspect the hive - I'll need to go in and clear out any comb built where it shouldn't be. And I need to get to the very bottom board to look for any mites, insects or mouse droppings.  I think I got the mouse guard up there before the mice are looking for warmth.  Plus, I have a greenhouse where mice like to nest. I'm prepared there with something to get rid of mice so if I had a choice, I'd rather they go into the greenhouse.
But, that being said, I really wish I didn't need to deal with mice and chipmunks at all!