Concrete beehive

[Ian123]

First of all let’s get over this bullying thing….. Youve made statements on an open forum, I’ve simply questioned some of your assumptions or statements, the fact you appear not to like these questions is not bullying. The fact that many of us don’t have issues wintering bees in wooden hives rather dents your pet theory, maybe that’s what upsetting?
I’ve not made any personal comments to you or I believe anything that could without considerable effort be considered rude, and I certainly haven’t made any threats.
If on the other hand questioning incorrect information or theories is bullying then I could consider myself guilty. But considering this forum is read by new beeks I rather take pride in questioning misinformation or incorrect statements as do others in the hope some are not led down the garden path!

In response to post 79
“The anthesis, which you assert, is: its never close the edge of of survivability.
So you are asserting it’s never close to edge? Where is your proof that bees always survive regardless of climate regardless of location”

I’ve never asserted bees in wood never die. Please show me when I’ve said this? What I clearly said is bees in wooden hives survive well and have far better survival rates than wild counter parts. That is fact and backed up with much evidence and the reasons are multiple.

Most of us here have wooden hives some of us have a mixture of wood and poly. My wooden hives thrive as do others reading this thread. I’ll welcome anyone to say theirs don’t due to thin wood! To say they are on the edge of survival is plain wrong! There’s plenty of commercial beeks who run successful operations with wooden hives are they on the edge of survival.

I’ve never suggested wood hives are perfect or ideal, I’ve many poly boxes and bees do well in these as well. I’d suggest good beekeepers will manage bees well and successfully in both. Let’s not invent issues.
As an example tomorrow I’ll post some photos of some five frame nucs in thin wooden boxes that are surviving perfectly well…..How does that sound?

 

[user 6228]

First of all let’s get over this bullying thing….. Youve made statements on an open forum, I’ve simply questioned some of your assumptions or statements, the fact you appear not to like these questions is not bullying. The fact that many of us don’t have issues wintering bees in wooden hives rather dents your pet theory, maybe that’s what upsetting?
I’ve not made any personal comments to you or I believe anything that could without considerable effort be considered rude, and I certainly haven’t made any threats.
If on the other hand questioning incorrect information or theories is bullying then I could consider myself guilty. But considering this forum is read by new beeks I rather take pride in questioning misinformation or incorrect statements as do others in the hope some are not led down the garden path!

In response to post 79
“The anthesis, which you assert, is: its never close the edge of of survivability.
So you are asserting it’s never close to edge? Where is your proof that bees always survive regardless of climate regardless of location”

I’ve never asserted bees in wood never die. Please show me when I’ve said this? What I clearly said is bees in wooden hives survive well and have far better survival rates than wild counter parts. That is fact and backed up with much evidence and the reasons are multiple.

Most of us here have wooden hives some of us have a mixture of wood and poly. My wooden hives thrive as do others reading this thread. I’ll welcome anyone to say theirs don’t due to thin wood! To say they are on the edge of survival is plain wrong! There’s plenty of commercial beeks who run successful operations with wooden hives are they on the edge of survival.

I’ve never suggested wood hives are perfect or ideal, I’ve many poly boxes and bees do well in these as well. I’d suggest good beekeepers will manage bees well and successfully in both. Let’s not invent issues.

QED

 

[Sutty]

Can I suggest to agree to disagree and leave it at that?

 

[user 6228]

Can I suggest to agree to disagree and leave it at that?

It is not disagreement of fact. Its the use rhetorical devices. In this case, assert an alternative meaning to one the phrases the Target has used, then declare this alternative meaning false with such gusto and venom , that all overlook that the alternative meaning has been inserted. He's done before in the past. If caught he uses ridicule and denial to cover his tracks. Getting in a few digs at target at the same time if he can. What he want is the target to attempt to clarify and argue so that he can further assert the inserted meaning. This works expecially well on a forum because who is going to look into the full history.

 

[Antipodes]

The longer I keep bees the more importance I place on things such as queen raising, disease control, colony management and forage/food, and further down the list of importance are other things, which have admittedly piqued my interest and experimentation at various stages...things like insulation and ventilation. Those things have been argued about amongst beekeepers for a very, very long time. Perhaps it's because we find those things easier to do something about? Really good beekeepers here claim 150kg average yield in wooden hives, but they get those important things right.

 

[Ian123]

So as promised but a little delayed here’s a couple of pics of some small nucs in response to two quoted references on size of colony and stores required for successful Wintering. In fairness I don’t believe either article was intended to be used as a definitive Winter guide, but perhaps as an ideal for average colonies in respective areas?… I also think the NBU guide was very much angled or designed for beginners or the less experienced!

This first picture is not the ideal, but that’s the reason I included it. These are 2 small mating nucs that hardly touched 4 frames in the Autumn and I’d thought of uniting but clearly didn’t get around to it. Although small they looked quite good so left them to it. I’d expect them to expand come spring and given half sensible conditions they’ll probably need moving up end of April. Both boxes currently have bias.

The second picture is a decent 5 frame nuc that went into Winter far stronger. But still on five frames not the referenced quantities at all. She’s a daughter of a Jolanta breeder fyi…I’d suspect they’ll require a brood end of March or early April very much weather dependent.

These boxes are all 18mm ply walls with 9mm bottom boards and 6mm crown boards. There is no other insulation in these boxes, actually a little poor on my part but at least I’d left room for the candy.

As a rough guide I’ve always found if your box matches the quantity of bees and that box is full of food you won’t go far wrong and that applies with wild colonies and logs, nucs or full boxes!

All the above is pretty obvious to the more experienced and I’m sure many here do or have done the same. Some do appear a little unsure though!