Lovely bit of wood work but...
Why are they made from poly normally? Simply because of warmth.
These little units are under a huge stress and because there are (relatively) few bees then warmth is crucial to them. Not to mention helping avoid nosema which they are prone to suffer from.
I am not banging the poly drum as such here but on behalf of the bees it is not I feel a suitable way to make such a unit.
PH
Hmm>>>>>>>
One of the very best insulators is timber, the poly model see have quite a bit of ventillation because of its heat retaining properties no doub't.
The model I have made here can hold double the number of bees than most poly models and with less venting will be much warmer than its counterpart, but extra strike out vents can be incorporated at will with a drill.
There is an old saying which my grandfather himself a bee keeper of old, who kept 20 hives for 60 years in our farm orchard, which says" Heat is half meat" meaning if you can keep warm you only need half the food, but keeping cooler is far harder because no matter how much food one has, it counteracts the expelled energy in doing so, thus creating heat you cannot get rid of, (works both ways).
The roof section will have a top feeder incorporated into it so the very top quilt section does'nt need to be removed to replenish food stocks and the bees do not get disturbed, the very top platform is removeable showing only the feeder.
Animal or in this case insect husbandry is not going to be sacrificed by a seasoned man of the land such as myself, you can sleep easy knowing that the bees will have first priority in that scence, this is a theme upon similar experiments done by others in the past, before poly anything arrived.
I have a bee station and other recording devices for making detailed files on how things are inside on the days when its not suitable.
On a closing note an apparatus this size can easily be shielded from the heat wave, by extending the dovetailled post mount to include a roof.
Isn't bee keeping fun stuff
