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This thread has been heavily moderated (i.e. lots of posts deleted). Mods: It would be useful for those late to the thread to leave markers where this has been done.

I agree. I use OMF for the benefits it offers but it does seem unnecessarily harsh to leave the bottom of the hive completely open all winter. So, like Dani, I leave the varroa board in about 5cm below the mesh all year. 5cm = 1/10 cubit = 2 1/4 fingers

I don't think there is a need to power wash, just lots of cold water will dissolve the honey and rinse away the wax/other bits.

A sheet of PIR insulation, covering the whole crown board, all year.

The Ivy is strangely reluctant to flower in Suffolk. Lots of buds but all tightly shut.

Ahhh... good point.

I remember all that stuff used to be printed on the back cover of my school exercise books back in the 60s.

There is nothing rational about the decimal metric system. It exists only because we (most of us) have 10 digits. Try dividing 10 by 3! A truly rational base is 60, as used by the Babylonians. It is a highly composite, unitary perfect, abundant, semiperfect number. Also many of the SI units are...

What will be in thousands of years - nil impact??

Trees and the use of wood are irrelevant with regard to carbon footprint. CO2 is collected from the air when the tree is growing and is released again when the tree dies (or the wood is burned or returned to the earth). It is a natural cycle and has no impact on global carbon levels in the long...

Well done. As I have said before, the Method is not about the box. Virtually any hive box will work.

If you are worried about going a bit off-piste from the start, then I would go totally conventional initially, i.e. BS Nationals run the "standard" way. If you still want to try the Rose Hive Method later it is easy to do, as all the equipment, other than the actual boxes and frames, is BS National.

You may be on to something, perhaps the colour of the hive is significant? However there is no need for ridicule, even if you call it humour, for a new beekeeper asking a valid question. Gaslighting is not helpful. BTW it should be "If I were a thinking beekeeper..."

Consider Rose Hives (and the Method) as an option.

A couple of my colonies have a lot of varroa on the inspection board, others almost none. They are all in the same location (my garden). Clearly there is something that if different between them. I suspect it is down to robbing behaviour.

There really is no need for sarcasm here. A thinking beekeeper has made an observation and shared it with us. He may be on to something or not but he does not deserve derision. If you know better, then share - nicely.

http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/bsframedesignations.html

You seem to be arguing against yourself. Is damp caused by closing ventilation or by opening ventilation (OMF)? I would argue that OMF reduces damp.

...ahh, but I treated mine with Acoustic Dye, which improves the insulating value by 100%.

Completed the OA vape program yesterday and today consolidated all the hives down to 2 boxes for the winter. Made sure that each had enough honey (by weight) to see them through - now I can extract the surplus. I'll start monitoring the hive weights from now until spring.