jezd
Drone Bee
- Joined
- May 12, 2009
- Messages
- 1,540
- Reaction score
- 8
- Location
- UK
- Hive Type
- Other
- Number of Hives
- 299.1
External Hive Insulation (my approach)
Thought I would share my newly insulated hives with you all, doing this was always the plan but it got delayed like most things in life. The reasons for doing this was to help with general heat retention and at the same time keep moisture (rain ingress) to a minimum.
The blue national in the separate picture (the rest are the same now) has two thermal skirts around it, the lower one fits the brood box and will stay in place until April time. Above this is a second ‘removable’ thermal skirt that sits around the super to keep the rain out and this sits under the roof lip - the super contains fondant feed has breathable insulation in it with a cover-board on top. This top skirt can be taken off for inspections or treatments, also note that the handle inserts on the BB have been filled with 1" polystyrene blocks.
The six frame Nucs are similar too, they have a single skirt around them with 1" polystyrene blocks in the handle inserts. Inside each box is a raised cover-board and the roof has a 9mm trim lift under it and then lined with thermal sheeting.
Comments welcomed.
JD
PS Those keen eyed amongst you (and yes there are a few) will see that the blue hive is missing a mouse guard – take off as it got clogged up, but do they need to be on now? Mice are all tucked up in bed by now….
Thought I would share my newly insulated hives with you all, doing this was always the plan but it got delayed like most things in life. The reasons for doing this was to help with general heat retention and at the same time keep moisture (rain ingress) to a minimum.
The blue national in the separate picture (the rest are the same now) has two thermal skirts around it, the lower one fits the brood box and will stay in place until April time. Above this is a second ‘removable’ thermal skirt that sits around the super to keep the rain out and this sits under the roof lip - the super contains fondant feed has breathable insulation in it with a cover-board on top. This top skirt can be taken off for inspections or treatments, also note that the handle inserts on the BB have been filled with 1" polystyrene blocks.
The six frame Nucs are similar too, they have a single skirt around them with 1" polystyrene blocks in the handle inserts. Inside each box is a raised cover-board and the roof has a 9mm trim lift under it and then lined with thermal sheeting.
Comments welcomed.
JD
PS Those keen eyed amongst you (and yes there are a few) will see that the blue hive is missing a mouse guard – take off as it got clogged up, but do they need to be on now? Mice are all tucked up in bed by now….
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