Yes, it was recommended that I put up snow fence as a "wind block". My Queen Breeding mentor suggested either that or move some of my hives next to the house to block some of the wind. We get some pretty strong winds during the winter and although I have them wrapped, he said that it wouldn't hurt to put up a wind break. We shall see how it goes this year I have definitely changed things up from last year when I lost all of my hives. I am currently at 11 colonies and would like to make it through with as many as I can. We had a lengthy discussion about why to wrap and how. He suggests taking every precaution to keep them as warm as possible so that they are stronger coming out of winter. If they come through winter stronger/ earlier because of insulating it could be a week or two sooner that we have brood/ drones so queen rearing can be done a little earlier.

Hopefully the strong colony makes it through and you can get some splits made in the spring. Something to think about is marking the queens so that you know how old they are as well as when they get replaced by the colony. It also makes them a lot easier to find

From what I gather, you are trying to reduce major temperature swings inside the hive. By insulating and providing more R-Value to the hive, you are reducing the temperature swings during a 24 hour period. If lets say you wrapped in tar paper, you would be counting on thermal gain during the day. Some people say that this allows for the cluster to move a little further for stores if necessary. Unfortunately, they also cool off more rapidly as the sun sets.
By providing Insulation, especially on top, they maintain a more baseline temperature thus they are less active and consume less stores.
This insulation also keeps the interior of the hive right around the cluster a little warmer. They heat it up and the insulation helps maintain that temperature a little longer. This also cuts down on metabolic moisture inside of the hive. The cluster moves less, eats less during really cold spells thus reducing humidity levels inside the hive. I was told to have an upper entrance of no less than 3/4" to help reduce moisture levels. Like I said earlier, I am trying different things based on advice that I recieved from commercial beeks. One of them (My Mentor) has successfully over-wintered thousands of hives (Full Size, Nucleus, Mating Nucs) through some harsh Maine winters and the other the owner of Swans Honey in Maine who has one of the largest beekeeping operations this side of the Mississippi. Although they differ in their practices a little, they both do basically the same thing for winter preps. My mentor told me early on that he has been able to over-winter mini mating Nucs here in Maine, that caught my attention as most here can't seem to winter in two deeps

This Matters much.  Many things are accomplished here...

Basically what it means is that they maintain a more constant temperature. The insulation prevents a yuuuuuge temperature swing. If the cluster has to work less to maintain the ideal temperature within the cluster, they move less/ eat less thus creating less moisture within the confines of the hive. Think about it like this:
1. You are in a box outside during winter, your body generates heat as you move, eat, etc... This box has no insulation and is only 3/4" thick. The amount of moisture because of the variance of temperature between inside the box and outside the box is way different. Your heat dissipates very quickly and condensation builds up on the inside of the roof and drips on you. This is a recipe for disaster.
2. You are inside a box outside during winter, your body generates heat as you move, eat, etc... This box is insulated and helps to maintain the ambient temperature inside the box near your body. Because of the ventilation, moisture is dissipated from the roof and does not drip on you.
I don't know if this is all that there is to it but after it was explained to me this way, it made total sense. Hopefully what they say works. If I make through winter with even half of my colonies, I will be a believer Hopefully DUX chimes in here as he has way more experience than I do but we both seem to be on the same page...

I hope it works too. As far as insulation year round, that may or may not be a good idea. My thoughts are that it would possibly keep the temperature too high during the height of summer and they would have to work really hard (fanning) to regulate the temperature. I may be wrong but that is my thoughts. It may be as simple as finding a balance of how much insulation to use if that sounds like it would be simple???

IMHO, the only way to find out what will work for you is to try a few different things. I don't know what winters are like in you're location but I would try a couple of different things with different hives to see what works. I have noticed that people here will try anything and if it works one year, they seem to stick with it regardless of the results of multiple winters and colony losses.many here seem to get by with just painting their hives a darker color. If they make it through with 50% of their stock, they are ok with that. I am not okay with a 50% loss year after year so I have to take every precaution to beat the odds. Last year I wrapped in Landscape Fabric/ Roofing Paper and lost all of them. I don't know for 100% certainty why they all perished but they all died very close to honey stores (less than 1/4" away). Some have said Mite damage, some have said possibly Nosema. My mentor seems to think that they were too cold to make it over to those stores during our really cold spell. They were head first into cells which to me indicates starvation. They had plenty of honey right next to them on the same frames so maybe he is right.
I jokingly told him the other day that if my hives don't make it this year, I will bring all of my new hives to his house and let him overwinter them there

Had a conversation with a good friend of mine whom is a beekeeper in NY last night. He had about 40 colonies this season as he has done MANY swarm calls as well as cut-outs. When I visited NY in September, we went through all of his hives. At that point he had already combined some and had also lost some bringing his number to 20 something hives. A lot of these were in Nucs either 5/5 or 5/5/5 and he had at least 10 full size hives (two brood boxes) some with honey supers and some not. We spend a few hours going through hives and combining some of the weaker ones to get their numbers up before winter. He had at that point done one Oxalic acid treatment as he is not big on treating When I left we had a good conversation about his apiary and how good everything looked. I mentioned that I would do a sugar roll test to see what the mite loads are and treat if necessary. He decided to try something new and follow some advice from a YouTube channel (FatBeeMan) and use Mineral oil to fog his hives. I told him that I was not aware of that method but would do a lot of research before trying it. I also told him that I would not put all of my "eggs in one basket" and not treat all of my hives with this method. Well, he decided to treat all of his hives with this method two weeks ago.
Last night I got the phone call. Eight of his hives are basically dead. Some of them have a queen but only about 100 bees he immediately thought CCD but after a lengthy conversation and trying to pinpoint what could have happened, I think that it is a direct result of this fogging mineral oil treatment. He did not want to hear it but if that was the only thing that was done in the last two weeks and they looked good two weeks ago, it is evident that this could have been the main contributing factor. Hopefully this will help someone not make the same mistake. I feel terrible for him but he should have done more research and not done this to all of his hives

While I would like to be on the no treatment wagon, for me it is just too risky. I like many others have thousands of dollars worth of equipment as well as bees and to gamble like that is just asking for trouble. I would not as I said put all of my faith in one treatment method especially if it has not been proven and or approved. This is why I broke everything up this year. Most of my hives got Oxalic Acid Vaporization on a three treatment schedule. My others got Thymol. Both are not only proven to be very effective methods of controlling Varroa, they are also approved methods. Oxalic Acid as well as Thymol are generally considered light/ natural treatments.
I approve of trying new things but certainly not with all of my colonies. It's just too risky... I know that my friend is devastated but I have hooked him up with everything that he needs to get started in rearing his own queens. If he makes it through winter with a few hives, he will be back up to 20-30 in no time. He also gets a lot of calls for swarm captures and cut-outs. I have also told him that I would be willing to donate queens if need be.

This is the first I heard of the mineral oil possibly being an issue.  I know of several people that swear by it but I don't know if the success is real or not.  If he was combining them earlier was there more of an issue than what was noticed?  It seems early for any kind of losses but you are farther north.
    Last year most of my hives that died were gone by Thanksgiving.  All had more honey than they could have eaten.  Most had no bees left in them or only a handful upon post mortem inspection.  A lab test on one hive showed a 20% mite count.  I never treated before.  

The reason for combining so many was that they were late cutouts or small swarms and the numbers simply were not there. Some of these were in double or triple Nucs but did not have nearly enough bees to make it through winter in those configurations without combining to boost the numbers. I am not 100 percent sure that the Mineral oil treatment was the only reason for them disappearing but the timing seems awfully coincidental. He treated two weeks before they left (absconded). If this only happened to one or two hives, I would look at other factors. The fact that it was eight hives all at the same time got me thinking. I could be wrong but what else could it have been? All of these colonies looked very good at the time of treatment according to him. Also no dead bees in or around the hives. This suggests that they took off.

I am moping around the the house today. We lost our 14 yo Lab in July and Tuesday I had our 2 yo Lab put down due to uncontrolled seizures. He was the one that spent hours with me driving around checking bee yards. At the beginning when I took him along he thought he was tough snapping at the bees but 2-3 stings later he was always back at the truck. Eventually he just went and did his thing while I worked the bees. Here he is the sleeping between my wife and I the night before he died. He just came out of a seizure and was resting.


Ok This may be lengthy as I am using the outline from my meeting at the bee club.

1.Fall is the time when nature is preparing for a rest. The bees are no different. They have prepared for winter all summer long. To guarantee success we may need to help them along.

2. Many things trigger the realization that winter is coming. I think diminishing sunlight hours, Temperature changes, and availability of food sources are the major trigger. They have to work harder to find less food. This changes their temperament greatly.

3. Food sources. The bees have just come off of hopefully a decent fall honey flow. This flow usually follows a summer Dearth so looking at it the bees have had cycles of bounty in the spring, famine in the hot dry summer, bounty during the fall flow and famine during the winter. The buildup of food stores the bees do during the bounty times is geared to the multiple famines nature throws at them each year. I have heard from experienced beekeepers that more hives starve during the summer than the winter. Makes sense since the hive is still building up its population during the summer and the population declines going through winter. Around here the goldenrod is a major fall food source. It is important to monitor the food reserves during this flow as it will indicate when, and how much you may need to supplement the hive for winter. Remember that even if you feed heavy in the fall the bees have to have the time to bring the syrup into the hive AND process it. If you are feeding the standard 2-1 ration they still have to remove approximately 17-20% of the liquid before it can be sealed. I am trying a 3-1 ratio which only needs approximately 8-10% of the liquid to be removed(evaporated) by the bees.

4. Hive preparation and components. If you have screened bottom boards slide the mite drawer in to make it easier to keep the hive warm. Once the Goldenrod is declining I install the entrance reducers/mouseguards. The hive no longer needs the ability to have mass numbers of bees exiting and entering for nectar/pollen gathering. Hive security is much more important at this time to prevent robbing. I use a hive top feeder on each one of my hives that allows me to add 4 gallons of sugar syrup per hive at one time. I have seen starving but strong hive pull 3 gallons of syrup down in 24 hours. I also have noticed a correlation between hive strength and syrup consumption(dying hives don't take much syrup and usually leave it in the feeders). This is a clue to look further. I use a tripod and deer scale to weigh each hive in September. I use this to determine how much food to add to each colony. I have decided to top off each hive at 100 pounds of food. A 2 deep box colony will weigh approximately 50 pounds. If the weight shows 100 pounds I know it has 50 pounds of food and 50 pounds of wood. I figure each gallon of syrup adds 10 pounds of weight So I will add 5 gallons of syrup. Actual syrup will vary in weight depending on the ratio. I think 2-1 is 11 pounds per gallon and this 3-1 that I am using is around 13 pounds per gallon. But to err on the side of caution I figure 10 pounds per gallon when calculating. This year I noticed that the hive populations are high in my colonies and they are keeping the hive beetles pushed up into the feeders where the bees can't get to them. The plus side of this that the beetles can't lay their eggs up their either. Once the liquid feeder is empty it is removed. You can do a quick check on the queen but be careful. It is hard to find one this time of year and harder to get them to accept a new queen in the fall. I then put a candy board on each hive. If you have the resources you can place a piece of foam insulation ABOVE the inner cover. Keep in mind the bees enjoy chewing on the foam so a piece of 1/8" screen over the center hole in the inner cover will keep that from happening when they get bored. Wraps, I am not using anything this year. In the past I made slip over hard foam covers(much like a cooly cup) I don't know if they were effective or not. They sell commercial wraps that I hear good things about but they are still around $16 each. Pricey when you have a lot of hives. Black felt is commonly stapled to the hives. This blocks wind penetration nicely but it has other effects. On sunny days it will raise the inside hive temp. Sometimes rapidly giving it a wild temperature swing. This causes the cluster to break and the bees start to do hive chores and inspections. When the sun goes down the heat is turned off and since the roofing felt doesn't have any insulating qualities the inner hive temp will drop rapidly. If the bees have not re-clustered during this period those bees left out will perish inside the now cold areas of the hive. A friend opened his hive one spring after doing this to fine 20 or so small clusters of bees that froze to death scattered throughout the hive. The clusters were just to small to maintain a survival temp. Together the cluster would have been fine. Keep in mind that wrapping with insulation will also not allow the hive to collect any solar warmth which may be a plus or minus.

I believe in a strap around each hive to make sure the lid doesn't blow off. Nothing worse than loosing a nice strong hive to freezing because their roof is gone and you didn't notice it for the coldest week of the season.

As important as ventilation is during the summer is is crucial during the winter. When you exhale on a cold day you can visually observe the humidity. This humid air is warmer and as such rises to the ceiling of the hive where it condenses. When the condensation gets large enough it will drip on the cluster. At the least this "rain" stresses the bees and in worst case will cause them to lose to much heat and freeze." I use a hard "sugar cake" in each of my candy boards as an emergency food source. This cake will absorb the moisture that the bees produce. Also if the bees haven't had time to process all of the syrup given to them it will add more humidity to the atmosphere inside the hive. My candy boards have a 1 1/2"x3/8 vertical slot cut in them for ventilation and use as an upper entrance.

Thank you for sharing and I look forward to reading more. I am VERY sorry to hear about the loss of your pup. It is never easy!
As far as the syrup concentration, I have read of people experimenting with different ratios such as 5:3 as well as 3:1. Do you find that you need to offer water with the thicker syrup? My other concern is having to make large batches of a more concentrated syrup. As of now I make my 2:1 like this:
Take a container (I use 5 gallon buckets)  and make a line. Fill with sugar to the line. Add hot water a few cups at a time and stir. The level will sink as the sugar dissolves. Add more hot water and stir until the level reaches the line again. This is almost always a 2:1 ratio no matter what size container you are using. I do have some crystallized sugar in the bottom afterwards but it is negligible and the bees don't care Are you wrapping hives and if so with what material???

5.  Phases of winter preparation.  I feel that actually I start my winter prep in July/August.  When I pull my supers I like to add a pollen patty as nature is usually in a Dearth and egg laying for many hives slacks off.  I also like to give them a bit of sugar syrup to keep them laying.  I like a large hive population at all times, even if it means more feeding.

A larger population going into the fall flow means more workers and more mouths to feed.  After the supers are pulled I treat for varroa using the Oxalic vaporizer.  A treatment at this time is important since the bees hatching in the Fall are the ones that carry the hive through winter.  So they need to be varroa free to keep the viruses low.  A few individual sick bees will transmit the virus readily once they have the close cluster contact.

I then start weighing my hives and planning their winter stores.  I keep records of what each hive weighs, how much syrup they got and when they got it.  This allows me to see if any hives are short on stores but refusing to take it.  After the hive is up to weight I remove the feeders and install candy boards and entrance reducers.  Also wraps/wind breaks if I am planning on those.  I strap my hives year round.  Usually around the middle of October I start the entrance reducers.  Candy boards go on in November.  Each of these steps allows me to see the general condition of the hive gauged by the population I see.  If necessary I can go deeper in the hive if I see something.

6. Queen strength.  Keep in mind that many times queens stop laying during a dearth.  They also slow down in the fall.  The queens health is important at this time of year because queens cannot be purchased year round,  Also if the hive is able to raise a new queen before winter are there any Drones around to breed with?  It has been told to me that hives don't like to accept queens late in the year.  I have not done much to see if this is true.

7.  Temperament.  Most hives have a decent disposition.  Some are just plane mean.  During different times of the year the demeanor may change due to circumstances inside or outside of the hive.  Feeding them should make them happy but I have been forced to leave from many of my hives when they come out to see who lifted the roof.  Other times the hive may have repelled an attack from yellow jackets, robbing bees, or hornets and are on the defensive.  Or they could have internal issues and are under some kind of stress.  Learning about this may be a clue if the hive is normally calm and then suddenly become Satan bees.  When I notice a trend with several hives acting the same in different yards I try to read them and usually figure that it may be an issue from outside the hive due to the season or weather.

8.  ROBBING!!!  Several on this board have had to deal with the effects of robbing.  That also will quickly change the temperament of a hive.  Be prepared for it.  If you must open feed do it away from the hives.  I try not to use entrance feeders either.

9.  Mites and treating.  Kitty stated earlier about how some people are skittish about using ANY treatments in their hives.  I admire that but nowadays You better have deep pockets for more bees or be extremely vigilant if you choose not to treat.  I hate the thought of introducing ANY chemicals into my hives ALMOST as much as losing the hives.  At the meeting I asked who treats for mites and a almost no one raised their hand.  One guy stated that he won't use chemicals until it becomes the last straw. I asked him if he had a pet and told me yes the family had a small dog.  I asked him if he liked the dog or if it belonged to his wife and he just tolerated it(I knew the answer as he is a real nice guy).  He stated that he liked it and he helped care for it.  Finally I asked him if he treats it for worms and has it vaccinated or hopes it can fend off the issues by itself. He smiled and said" I know where you are going with this(with a smile)".  He just never looked at it this way.  I told him this isn't just some kind of hormone injection you would give a steer to make it grow faster for market,  look at it as if it is medicine that may save your pets life.  Just a thought...

I have a friend that I refer to often as my mentor.  He is big into queen rearing.  He has spent many years trying to get the VSH line of bees to consistently have the hygenic traits necessary for varroa removal.  He gets frustrated  as it is so hit or miss on the success.  I believe that we are several years out yet.  Maybe 30 years of this work will get a consistent vsh trait.  Until then we have to keep the bees alive.  Tha may mean treatments  either chemical or non-chemical.

Non chemical would be things like using drone comb and brood breaks.  All time consuming and many times inhibiting to hive production.

I now see that you are not wrapping this year.  Any specific reason for the change?
All of my full size colonies including my 4/4 Nucs with divided bottom boxes have Bee Cozy's on them. At our annual meeting, Mann Lake had them on sale but did not have enough to go around so they offered the same price on line with free shipping so I ordered 10 of them. For my 5/5 and 5/5/5 Nucs, I have made slip on wraps made out of 1 inch Foamboard insulation with the notch cut-out for the upper entrances. They are going on today. For top insulation I used a 1" piece of Foamboard insulation on top of the inner cover and am putting another layer on top of the Tele covers. Unfortunately with this set-up and the Bee Cozy's, I cannot utilize a strap which I do use all season. For now, I have cinder blocks on all of them.

Did he use "food grade" mineral oil?  I don't know how important that part is.

My wraps I made are a pain and I am not sure if they are of any use.  I may decide to install what I have since they are already made up.  

I like your avator.  Thinking of going to a shepherd this time as we had 2 shortly after getting married before waterfowling took over my life.  They have unconditional love and steadfastness(is that a word?) for their family/pack.  I have had labs for the last 23 years or so am now hooked on the the labs people attraction.  I need my next dog to be personable and attached/close to my wife and I as the kids are at the age of moving out and grandkids are not on the immediate horizon.  I am also less than 2 years from retirement so lots of changes.

My pets are my life as I put more faith in them than in most of society.  

I was playing on the internet and found 20 things to know before you own a German Shepherd.  I was doing ok until I got to the last one.http://www.pawbuzz.com/20-things-all-german-shepherd-owners-must-never-forget/8/

Sorry for your losses Dux, that's a tough blow to withstand.

My best buddy is 12 years old and his hips or knees are starting to fail.  He's a Deutsch Drahthaar and he's got about 500,000 miles on him.  After puppyhood he's always been more than brave enough for the two of us when dealing with anything.  When the time comes for me to man up and be brave enough for the two of us is not a day I look forward to.


Best of luck with your search for a new buddy.

It is much harder.  The Veterinarian made the recommendation after Gunner wouldn't come to following 2 shots to calm the seizures.  Now I am stuck here with the 2 remaining cats and neither will volunteer to go with me and help check the bees.  Squeaks, the youngest cat and Gunner were inseparable.  Last night we found Squeaks laying on the floor next to where we kept Gunners Kennel.  She came back out after an hour or so.

Like you, I have more faith in my dogs than most of civilization. That being said, we don't have children and our dogs are our spoiled little kids. We have two, a black lab that is seven and a Shepherd that is 6. Our lab is the typical people friendly, dopey lab. I spent a lot of time with our Shepherd in training as well as socializing him with as many people as I could. When I lived in NY, I was a firefighter and I used to bring him to my firehouse all of the time to socialize with all of the guys. I even took him with me to a few parades so that he would be around massive crowds. He is very good with people. During training, another dog lunged at him and he has not been too fond of other dogs since. He gets along with all of my moms dogs and when we where down there in September, they all were together having fun and we had no issues. He is VERY attached to my wife. She has had a few seizures since last year and this dog is like Glue on her since her first seizure. He has borderline separation anxiety when we go outside without her. Fortunately, she works from home so he gets to watch her all day. Our lab is still like a little puppy and has tons of energy. She is more concerned with food than anything else. In my lifetime my family has had many, many dogs. We had a few labs, as well as terriers. Up until about 15 years ago, we always had German Shepherds. Bith my Mother and my Grandfather bred Shepherds and my Grandfather was big into training and show. Unfortunately as he got older, he could not keep up with them anymore so our Shepherd lineage stopped In my house alone we probably had about 20 different Shepherds and my grandparents where breeding them since the early 50's. They probably had about 40 of them during their lifetime. As far as dogs go, I love them all, especially my lab but I will always have a soft spot for Shepherds. They to me are the perfect dog. They are smart, loyal to a fault and would without hesitation give their life for yours. Nothing hurts me more than to see a German Shepherd with a broken spirit. I don't know what it is but I can see it in their eyes and when I do it really gets to me. When I was a weeee little one, my parents had a big female Shepherd named Danya. She was as my mother called her, my Nanny. She watched over me like a hawk. If I wandered too far, she would bark to alert my mother and herd me back to the house. If the mailman or any other stranger came to the house, she would sit in front of me to block me. She was an incredible dog and the first that my mom bred. From her litter we saved one male and one female. The female got bred with a championship show dog that had west German lines. My first Shepherd came from their first and only litter. I took that dog everywhere with me. We trained and trained and went to shows. Unfortunately back then, he could not be entered in any serious shows because he was a coated (long hair) which disqualified him. He was a beautiful dog though. He had these piercing eyes that would scare the shit out of my friends when he stared at them. And with his long coat, he looked more like a bear than a dog. I miss him very much even today 25 years later. They are all like family and deserve our best as that is what they give us so selflessly. I hope that you find a new buddy soon and although they can never replace the ones that we have had, they can sometimes help fill that void that is left when we have to let one go.

It sounds like your grandfather was very knowledgeable with shepherds.  

When I see a shepherd for some reason I see a military veteran.  I can't explain it but he seems to be always "on Duty".  Sad in a way because it seems he never rests....

This is true in a sense. Mine is always on alert. Even if he is sleeping its not a very deep sleep. All it takes is for the wind to blow in a different direction and he is "tuned in" even if his eyes a closed. My lab could sleep through a hurricane.
I just got finished adding my Homemade Foamboard wraps to my two 5/5 and 5/5/5 Nucs. It is cloudy today and a little on the cool side and they are not too fond of me messing with them today. I would say that based on the number of headbutts that I recieved as well as the two stings through my pants, the numbers are good. It does appear that one of my smaller 4/4 Nucs has a lot of dead bees in front of it. I saw a lot of activity both yesterday and today so I am assuming that they got robbed. The entrances are really reduced on those so I hope that they were able to defend themselves. I will investigate further when I put candy on next week. Once the weather cools down and candy is placed on top, they are all done for the season. I will. He check on them again If we get a warm spell in Feb/ March. Good luck to all with winter and let's hope for a banner year next year.

I had a hand in this story.
The ideal, along with setting Allison up with Tammy & Steve.
I think it turned out great.
http://www.wymt.com/content/news/Backroads-Bees-399920511.html

Yep, we need to keep the public aware of the plight of the honeybee.  Good on you.

I set up my feeder outside the hive, about 30 feet away. They went crazy over the 3:1 syrup I put out! And standing back from the hive and feeder, I saw no one flying away, so there were no  robbers present. I'm going to continue doing this as long as they are flying, which I'm guessing will continue until the nighttime temps reach freezing. We still

I thought I saw robbing earlier in the year, but I'm guessing it was just the girls getting a sugar high. They'd go nuts, flying all around the hive, just becoming absolutely frenetic when there was syrup present.


Here's an article about overwintering bees; how does the HiveMind respond? Sounds reasonable:


My bee mentor gave me an oxalic acid patty, I left it in the hive for a week then removed it per his instructions (and wore gloves for both operations). He says "You have varrora in your hive; just treat for it twice a year and you'll be OK."

I currently have eight frames, seven pounds each, seemingly all of which is honey or pollen now*; I'm going to build a couple of sugar feeder trays to hang in the hive. I've also reduced the hive size with a reducer, so that it is now 10 frames long instead of 22 frames.








*Pollen cells look like they were capped when 1/2 full.

I always thought the cluster was much warmer than that even without brood.  Also pollen looks good.  Protein for the new ones next spring.  i don't believe pollen gets capped though.

There are times when bees will place pollen in a cell and place honey on top of the pollen. If they do this, they will cap it but it is not the norm as far as I know.
BTW, what is an Oxalic Acid patty?

That would be for tracheal mites.
Edit: which I am sure that you already know

Finished some of my Mating Nucs the bottom one is from Brushy Mountain and it has 4, 2 frame compartments. The 5 frames that I made are 2, 2 frame compartments with a division board that I made to seperate the two colonies. I knew that I purchased those disc entrances for a reason
I have two more coming from Brushy Mountain so I can house 20 queens.

The bottom one is a deep converted into 4 seperate 2 frame compartments each with their own entrance and inner cover. Here is a link to them.
The 5 frame Nucs I just made a division board and put two seperate entrances, one for each compartment.the discs where purchased from Mann Lake.
Those will have a cut piece of shingle as the inner covers as that is what my queen breeder uses and I have a lot left over from building my chicken coop. Basically cut it to size and place on the frames with a few sticks under them to provide bee space.
I have the entrances oriented on different sides front/ back on two of them and side/side on two of them. This is only because of the way that I will be orienting them in the "Nuc Yard".

One for each compartment. So there are two entrances completely opposite from each other. This is to prevent confusion for the bees. So the five frame Nucs have one entance on the front for one side and one on the back end for the other side. The other two Nucs are the same just one entrance on one side and one on the other as opposed to the front and the back.