Had a chat with my friendly beekeeping tutor who ran the beginners course I attended earlier this year. It transpired that there were several things I needed to sort out. Firstly, the mouseguard needed to come off as my hive is a modern National and only has a small entrance for bees – so is already effectively mouse proof and applying the guard might actually obstruct bees entering or leaving. Secondly, I had to remove the queen excluder and also the metal tray (which is for inserts to check the levels of varroa) below the mesh at the bottom of the hive. This allows ventilation from the bottom. Finally, I had to insulate from the top by placing, on top of the crown board, some foil and an eke within which I put a washed cotton bathmat and towel. The roof was placed on top of this. During all of this I tried to minimise the exposure to cold for the bees and fortunately did see a few alive bees so hope everything is ok in there!!