Brood nest size most commonly used in the UK

[Hivemaker.]

and the other posts..

No, just the one, by me anyway, Mark may of deleted others earlier, I don't know.

 

[Finman]

and the other posts..

Hivemaker's immunotherapy will be continued...
.

 

[user 6228]

No, just the one, by me anyway, Mark may of deleted others earlier, I don't know.

it was after post 51...

" I have only experience of the bees in my garden but my knowledge of heat transfer ..." or words to that effect..

 

[Hivemaker.]

it was after post 51...

" I have only experience of the bees in my garden but my knowledge of heat transfer ..." or words to that effect..

Never got to see that one.

 

[Millet]

Hivemaker's immunotherapy will be continued...
.

Why use such a cruel word to mock folk, i do not mind messing about and having a laugh but that is well bellow my belt.

 

[Finman]

but that is well bellow my belt.

I could not sleep when I thought that you have those bellow your belt. What are they? Is it a nest?

 

[maddydog]

I could not sleep when I thought that you have those bellow your belt. What are they? Is it a nest?

That made me spit my porridge out this morning! I must have Scandinavian heritage coz Finski's one liners crack me up

Out of interest Derek (or anyone else) if Finski uses 20kg of sugar in his poly hives (tempted to say Nakas ) then what would you guess the sugar saving would be in a super insulated hive? More importantly do you think there would be unintended consequences for our Finnish friend?

 

[Finman]

super insulated hive? More importantly do you think there would be unintended consequences for our Finnish friend?

Super insulated hives

- impossible to use in migratory beekeeping
- ants bite them down in one month

- does it stand 200 kg weight above the box

- ants bite down all home made insulate board hives. Too soft even to bees.

- waste of money and human time

.
Once I made 6 polystyre board boxes. Before I put any frame into them, they colapsed into my hands.

I have much DIY mating nucs but they are ruined by ants.

.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

No, just the one, by me anyway, Mark may of deleted others earlier, I don't know.

I've not kept frequent check on this thread so didn't see the offending posts but when considering the overall picture of posts from contributors to the forum I'm wondering who creates most discord throughout the membership?
I'll let readers make up their own minds on that!

 

[Fusion_power]

I'm wondering who creates most discord throughout the membership?

I'll hazard a guess the rule of 80/20 applies meaning 80% of the discord is generated by 20% of the posters.

This thread has drifted far off the original request. Maybe we could talk for a bit about the reasons for using a given brood nest and bee breed. Most of my beekeeping effort is based on doing as little work as possible. For this reason, I work my backside off building equipment that makes the work easier. This sounds very counter-intuitive but I assure you there is method to the madness.

Given the location and beekeeping constraints of the OP, it sounds like two possibilities are worth looking at.

http://www(dot)rosebeehives(dot)com/

There are plenty of online resources to look at Dadant equipment.

 

[Finman]

.
Beehives sold in Sweden

http://www.biredskapsfabriken.se/en/kategorier.php?kid=8

Nacka has made poly hives 30 years in Sweden. Seemengly it has stopped to produce curved WALLS. But however it has hand holds --- yet.

http://www.sigtunahonung.se/biredsk...-tillbehor/nacka-kupan-ln/paket-ln-nackakupan


Lower box is old Nacka and upper Honey Paw box

wall thicknes 2 cm and 4 cm. Thin wall has worked fine 30 years.


Red shirt girl and green hive

http://nortonsafe.search.ask.com/se...pr=10&ver=22&imgs=1p&filter=on&imgDetail=true

 

[user 6228]

duplicate post

 

[user 6228]

That made me spit my porridge out this morning! I must have Scandinavian heritage coz Finski's one liners crack me up

Out of interest Derek (or anyone else) if Finski uses 20kg of sugar in his poly hives (tempted to say Nakas ) then what would you guess the sugar saving would be in a super insulated hive? More importantly do you think there would be unintended consequences for our Finnish friend?

. The heat losses depend on more than material. Initial research shows that the floor and the entrance, and varroa tray slot design become a limiting factor. This factor comes into play at Polystyrene levels.
A superinsulated hive (50mm recticel) that has a single brood box with the right floor configuration can get 0.5 W/kg. This was measured on one I made.
This would indicate that the stores consumed in your situation where 20Kg was consumed in a standard paradies national hive the one I made will be around 20*0.5/1.3 =7.7Kg. However this assumes no extra holes in the wall of the brood box and all things being equal which they rarely if ever are.
A more realistic scenario for the UK is this one

Wood 20 kg
Poly A 10 kg
Poly B 6.9 kg
PIR 3.8 kg

As regards mechanical strength I have tested the walls of the PIR brood box by standing on one (in front of an audience) in its normal load bearing direction on the correx gasket. Considering the small area I stood on it appears to be able to withstand at least 200 to 250 kg distributed over the whole mating surface, which surprised me but on reflection these boards are often buried under concrete with buildings standing on them.
This PIR is certified to withstand 140 kPa at 10% deformation in beekeeping terms thats about 1.1 metric tonnes on a brood box, but that level deformation is a bit large for beekeeping use.
As regards insect proofing, foil tape and facing does not allow bees, ants or water to enter the interior. In practice never seen an ant inside the material in 5 years, despite the garden being plagued bty them.

 

[Finman]

. The heat losses depend on more than material. Uni


A superinsulated hive (50mm recticel) that has a


PIR 3.8 kg

them.

When the colony had brood in spring, they use that 4 kg in a week.

They feed brood with that



.

 

[For want of a better word]

Today we got some snow from sky

Must be better than watching the repeats of Midsummer Murders that normally occupies the Finnish 8 month of Winter... Shirley???

Nos da

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Think he's a Miss Marple fan actually

 

[maddydog]

Thanks for the reply Derek.

I've experimented with cosies for wooden hives and was impressed with the results. Unfortunately i found they were not robust enough for my handling/apiaries. However, I appreciated the benefits and switched to poly hives with 50mm of kingspan in a standard roof. I'm in the process of adapting my floors and reducing the mesh to approximately 50cm2 as I'm far from convinced that a full omf is necessary

 

[Swarm]

I'm in the process of adapting my floors and reducing the mesh to approximately 50cm2 as I'm far from convinced that a full omf is necessary

It isn't, I reduced the mesh area in all my floors and the mesh was already reduced in size due to the porch area of the under floor entrance. The mesh only covers the central area of the floors.

 

[Finman]

I'm in the process of adapting my floors and reducing the mesh to approximately 50cm2 as I'm far from convinced that a full omf is necessary

I have outside main yield an entrance which is 1 x 15 cm = 15 cm2 plus two1,5 cm diameter upper entrance.

I look the need of ventilationg from number of ventilating bees.


So you intend to have 3 fold ventilation opening and you think that it is small.


I have in those hives 5-7 langstroth boxes. I do not have 4 box hives because I unite them to each other for main yield.

 

[user 6228]

When the colony had brood in spring, they use that 4 kg in a week.

They feed brood with that



.

Conservation of energy means What isn't going in the meat becomes heat. So unless your bees are producing 4kg or 40,000 bees a week then a big part that extra food is going to heat. The expanding brood area has a increased heat loss due to higher temperature differences and expanded surface area. Note sugar and bees have roughly the same calorific value per kilo gram and if a bee weighs 10E-4 kg then 4kg of sugar has the same calorific value as 40,000 bees