Insulating the hive

November has been harsh.  We've had three hard freezes.  That's not supposed to happen yet!  I've been throwing a duvet over the hive on the cold nights, hoping it helps some.I wrapped up the beehive for the winter, with 2 inches of rigid styrofoam and roofing felt.  I don't love this.  What did people do before plastics and tarpaper?  There has to be another way.  But anyway, I made the tri-fold foam into a three-sided box (the front doesn't get foam), using the lap joints and taping it up with Tuck tape.  Then I wrapped it all in the felt, stapling it on.As I worked, a few sentry bees came rocketing out, angry.  It was cold though, so these were suicide missions.  They would come out, buzz around angrily, then land on something, and be too cold to get back into the hive.  I picked one still bee body up off where it was clinging to a branch and placed it on the upper hive doorstep.  Within a second, pffft!  The bees threw the body back out.  I guess that one was dead.  I put another motionless bee on the doorstep.  They pulled it into the hive!  Maybe for a little bee cpr.  I put two or three more bees back in when I finished, in case they weren't dead yet.I did the front last, because for a few minutes, the bees are entirely closed in, until you cut out their entrances out.  They may not like that.When I cut out the upper entrance, there were two bees sitting inside, looking out.  Hello bees!