Dividing board with foil

[coffindodger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGg79MLKvR8&feature=em-subs_digest

Anybody? Too late this year, but worth thinking about when building frames and boards?

 

[Finman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGg79MLKvR8&feature=em-subs_digest

Anybody? Too late this year, but worth thinking about when building frames and boards?

Polystyrene board itself insulates well enough, but bees chew easily the board.
They use polystyrene even as comb building material.

Glued folio would be could to hinder chewing, but the same do painting.

.

 

[drex]

I have a number of dummy boards made up of kingspan, painted with masonry paint. They take up the space of about three frames and I use them, for example, when I first put a nucs into a full size hive. Bees leave them alone.

 

[Poly Hive]

Nothing new about insulated dummies, been around for decades.

Useful bit of kit esp for non insulated hives.

PH

 

[Bee Bumble]

We use aluminium foil on 50mm Celotex boards to reduce the size of brood boxes for overwintering casts / small colonies eg 6 frame nuc to 2 or 3 frame. We glue the foil onto the board and seal the joints with aluminium sticky tape. It works very well. However, if you do not glue the foil it can tear with handling and the bees will get inside and chew the board.

 

[Lancs Lad]

I run my brood 8 over 8 with polystyrene dummy boards made from Styrofoam RTM-X , they are painted with masonry paint and the bees never chew them

 

[user 6228]

unless the dummy board seals to the crown board and the walls they dont do much from heat retention perspective.

 

[oliver90owner]

Agree, Derek,

That is presumably why the thread title was about dividing boards. Dummies are a different item altogether. I use dummies to make frame removal easier as they don’t get propolised in solid - as long as the bee space is adhered to - but always a closer fitting board if I want to divide a box or to keep them warmer.

 

[Finman]

.
You cannot make science from that little thing. Dummy or not. Not much brain work to do, what you want to achieve in your hive.

 

[coffindodger]

The point of the video was not insulation, but that the foil reflects the heat. The idea being similar to using space blankets for human survival, so the science is basically there. Although beebumble has been using this method, nobody has made a comment on whether, in practice, the reflected heat makes any difference this so I'm no wiser.

 

[Swarm]

If I was using a divider board (two colonies in one box?) it would be a piece of ply.
For follower boards (to reduce space around a small colony) I use celotex and just tape up edges, the foil is okay as long as it's not damaged. I may use one or two and find them very useful, splits can go straight into a normal hive and frames can be added as and when required.

 

[coffindodger]

Still no wiser. If nobody knows, then perhaps worthy of an experiment. I'll try, but at the moment the drift between me and the apiary is head high and all my stuff is stored there.

 

[user 6228]

The point of the video was not insulation, but that the foil reflects the heat. The idea being similar to using space blankets for human survival, so the science is basically there. Although beebumble has been using this method, nobody has made a comment on whether, in practice, the reflected heat makes any difference this so I'm no wiser.

Yes it will reflect radiated heat back, how ever the space over the top allows the gains to escape by convection.

 

[Swarm]

Still no wiser. If nobody knows, then perhaps worthy of an experiment. I'll try, but at the moment the drift between me and the apiary is head high and all my stuff is stored there.

Do you think the temps inside the hive are that low that you require some sort of space blanket for them?

 

[Plenty of honey]

Completely agree, these are nothing new and also only help isolate an area.
We use these all the time, certainly don’t insulate the insulation! I wouldn't say the aluminium really reflects the heat back in makes it nice and shiny though lol The styrofoam is insulation itself. Derekm will know the exact dynamics!
We don’t use them to close off the end of a hive! We use them as a space filler and creates a definite end to each side of the colony for overwintering!
All my colonies overwinter on 7 frames.
Frame 1 is foundation, frame 2 is the partition.(or whatever you want to call it, foam filled frame etc) 3 to 9 is brood nest, 10 is second frame of foam or frame partition.
In the spring the bees as the bees start to grow, they go around the number 2 foam frame and start building on the foundation in no 1 slot. Along you come, see this, remove the two other foam frames from number 2 and 10. replace with new foundation
bees can chew the foam sometimes so we just paint them just like other poly hives
Let the bees tell you when they need more space!!
https://youtu.be/XKUzn1YJ8cI
just to add, i am on Dadants so we have deeper fames.




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[coffindodger]

Completely agree, these are nothing new and also only help isolate an area.
We use these all the time, certainly don’t insulate the insulation! I wouldn't say the aluminium really reflects the heat back in makes it nice and shiny though lol The styrofoam is insulation itself. Dereck will know the exact dynamics!
We don’t use them to close off the end of a hive! We use them as a space filler and creates a definite end to each side of the colony for overwintering!
All my colonies overwinter on 7 frames.
Frame 1 is foundation, frame 2 is the partition.(or whatever you want to call it, foam filled frame etc) 3 to 9 is brood nest, 10 is second frame of foam or frame partition.
In the spring the bees as the bees start to grow, they go around the number 2 foam frame and start building on the foundation in no 1 slot. Along you come, see this, remove the two other foam frames from number 2 and 10. replace with new foundation
bees can chew the foam sometimes so we just paint them just like te poly hives
Let the bees tell you when they need more space!!
https://youtu.be/XKUzn1YJ8cI
just to add, i am on Dadants so we have deeper fames.

Thank you and derekm too. Just what I wanted to know.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Thank you and derekm too. Just what I wanted to know.

Think Derekm may be spot on with the aluminium qualities, but for me i dont use it as this, its as i described for how i use it, so not rubbishing Derekm's always spot on advice.

 

[DanBee]

If I was using a divider board (two colonies in one box?) it would be a piece of ply.

My thoughts too, although it might be a translation issue as to whether it's a division board or a dummy board.

With a thin ply division board, you find that two small nucs in a divided brood box will run hemispherical brood nests either side of the divider, sharing warmth. In that scenario, insulating one from the other would seem counter-productive.

 

[Bee Bumble]

If I was using a divider board (two colonies in one box?) it would be a piece of ply.
.

I do the same.
My post referred specifically to over-wintering a single small colony in a nuc box that would be too large for the size of colony - e.g. a two or three frame colony in a six frame nuc. The aluminium foil-covered Celotex boards I referred to are divider boards NOT dummy boards.