Over wintering in poly hives

[snoop]

Weather was fine enough yesterday afternoon to do an inspection.
Cleared all debris from the floors etc

2 main things I noticed

1. Mice ate into 2 hives under the base between the base & varroa floor
2. I had a 6 frame nuc ( 2 stores & 4 frames of bees that only started to get strong at the end of September) I had full frames to spare at the end of September that I gave to the nuc & made up a full hive. I was still worried even though they now had 6 full langstroth frames of stores they they may not be able to heat the box so I put sheet of cardboard under the varroa floor to block the draught. This quen in this hive is now the one with most brood & eggs compared to the other 5.

Do others close down the omf over winter ?
Do the mice cause this problem under the omf with other bee keepers?

 

[Finman]

Woodperker too may make a hole under the floor.

My friend saw how woodperker makes a one metre tunnel via snow to the hive bottom.

It is quite common to shut the varroa floor over winter.

It is not late to shut other varroa floors too.