Extra insulation

[Olivia9801]

Just for peace of mind and due to this exceptional cold spell, I wrapped my four hives in bubble wrap yesterday. I have not allowed it to obstruct the entrance but each hive had three wraps of stuff yesterday. As soon as this cold weather has gone, I will take it off.

I did have a colony in a 5mm ply nuc last year, and insulated it with foam and they got through last winter and did very well last summer. With these cold temperatures being far worse I feel that colonies in normal wooden nationals could be wiped out, so am playing safe.

We had lovely sunshine today and there were lots of them out and about.

Anyone else taken similar steps?

 

[user 6228]

Its best to leave them undisturbed. Changes in insulation during winter have not always worked well. Mobus tried insulating then removing it on a 10 week cycle, which put the queen off lay.

 

[Finman]

J
I did have a colony in a 5mm ply nuc last year, and insulated it with foam and they got through last winter and did very well last summer. With these cold temperatures being far worse I feel that colonies in normal wooden nationals could be wiped out, so am playing safe.

We had lovely sunshine today and there were lots of them out and about.

Anyone else taken similar steps?

You have there really warm. But what you can do is to move bees to the warm hive. It speeds build up. 5 mm ply is very thin.

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[Olivia9801]

Its best to leave them undisturbed. Changes in insulation during winter have not always worked well. Mobus tried insulating then removing it on a 10 week cycle, which put the queen off lay.

It’s my intention to remove the bubble wrap as soon as this cold blast has gone.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I've had small colonies in 9mm plywood nucs out in this weather and all other colonies in bog standard cedar hives, they lived.
My grandfather's bees survived the bitterly cold winters in the 1940's 50's and early 60's ordinary wooden hives, they survived.

 

[Olivia9801]

That’s reassuring. If my colonies had died I would have kicked myself as it was something I thought was necessary.

It was just wrapped around the hives three times and tied. Will be off next week. I accept it maybe unnecessary, but I just wanted to play safe with an option that didn’t appear to disrupt them.

 

[Quevy]

I did exactly the same. Warre hive with 25mm pine wood walls.
Wrapped it in insulation when a cold east wind was predicted.
My hive is facing east and a strong cold wind was predicted.

As soon as wind turns, I remove the insulation.

Oh and I changed the quilt above the hive with new and dry wood shavings.

 

[enrico]

I've had small colonies in 9mm plywood nucs out in this weather and all other colonies in bog standard cedar hives, they lived.
My grandfather's bees survived the bitterly cold winters in the 1940's 50's and early 60's ordinary wooden hives, they survived.

It might not do much good but it certainly won't do any harm!
E

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Having put the insulation on the wooden hive, I'd be inclined to leave it there until the first inspection. Bees tend to survive no matter what the beekeeper puts them but they don't necessarily thrive in poor conditions.

Think about the conditions in which bees evolved over millions of years - most in northern Europe lived in hollow trees with a few inches of wood between them and the elements and above them they had 5, 10 or 15 feet of solid wood. They did not up sticks and move to a tree-hole with thinner walls in the summer.

CVB

 

[Finman]

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But warm hive is good to bees. In cold hive they consume more food and guy start to give emergency feeding since December.

I have had simple wall wood hives and they consumed 50% more food during winter. It means that in 20 kg sugar was finish in March and now same amount is finish in May.

I do not need to feed hives in spring here. But I even food frames between hives.

The most important feature in the warm hive is, how good is the spring build up. If the hive brings early yield 10 kg, it is value of £ 100. And price of poly box is £25. And then free pay back next 30 years.


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[Hunajavelho]

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But warm hive is good to bees. In cold hive they consume more food and guy start to give emergency feeding since December.

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If they stop brood rearing in early autumn it is good. If they keep on rearing brood long into winter beacause of a warm hive it is bad or if they start to early in spring.

Brothet Adam writes in his book that there was some positive effect of winter and to keep them more cool would give more honey in the summer. They also had better success with hives that had entrances facing north in winter.

 

[Finman]

If they stop brood rearing in early autumn it is good. If they keep on rearing brood long into winter beacause of a warm hive it is bad or if they start to early in spring.

Brothet Adam writes in his book that there was some positive effect of winter and to keep them more cool would give more honey in the summer. They also had better success with hives that had entrances facing north in winter.

However, the fact is that warm polyhives are better in UK than cold 2 cm thick wooden boxes. Lots of bees die in the shadow near entrance when they arrive to home in cold weather.

I really keep entrance to south. In Austaralia north facing is good. Adam lived in South England where Hivemaker lives.

 

[Wingy]

Not had much snow here but the temperature has dropped. My plywood nuc (18mm) is insulated with 50mm Kingspan and seems ok. I know there was still a lot of brood late autumn and my Q is already full steam ahead. Over the past
3-4 days there has been much brood cappings under the OMF and just before the cold snap a lot of young bees out orienteering. I'm continuing to feed fondant.
One thing I noticed over the last 2 days is out of the wind the sun is quite warm (been out in short sleeves) so I propped a pane of glass against each side of the hive extra shelter from the wind & a greenhouse effect. I'm guessing they have burned stores for brood so hopefully by keeping them warm they will access the fondant directly on the top bars.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I see one of the kit suppliers is selling cork inserts that fit between the locking bars for winter

 

[maddydog]

I see one of the kit suppliers is selling cork inserts that fit between the locking bars for winter

Ha! Yeah I saw that. £20.64 for a set to fit 14*12 - talk about blow to the SHINS! They'll be selling poly hives next....

 

[philipm]

Is it me or are we all going soft in this country. I remember when in the winter there was ice inside the windows and outside and it was pretty cold going to the outside loo. Now we have -5 degrees of frost and everyone panics are our bees going soft too? they never used to need all this pampering.

 

[Erichalfbee]

........

 

[Beefriendly]

It’s called progress. Girls get educated and women can vote

I thought it was double glazing
Damn fine invention.
People can feel nostalgic for ice inside windows if they wish...me I'll just take another layer off and add a few more logs on the fire. That is progress....

 

[Podilia]

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But warm hive is good to bees. In cold hive they consume more food and guy start to give emergency feeding since December.

As I read here, British beekeepers feed bees during winter. Do you believe that any warm hive would allow them to keep bees without brood rearing and on the low level of consumption?
Your observation about 50% is interesting but how about the fact that bees never heat their hive in (cold) winter. Actually bees can overwinter without hives if they are healthy. Recently I watched a video of a beekeeper who forgot to put a lid on a hive because his friend had visited him, they probably had something to drink So that colony was without the lid and any upper insulation for a month when that man noticed it. The cluster was very quiet in its place. During that month the bees had 15 cm of snow above. Then snow melted, water just leaked though the outer layer of the cluster to the bottom. That colony was small - 4 frames of bees.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Is it me or are we all going soft in this country. I remember when in the winter there was ice inside the windows and outside and it was pretty cold going to the outside loo. Now we have -5 degrees of frost and everyone panics are our bees going soft too? they never used to need all this pampering.

Yes, the snowflake generation keeps on going. I took the dogs out for a walk about 11am and walking past the local primary school I noticed that they had all gone home. The last parent straggler was picking up his kids in a hurriedly arranged collection presumably after some teacher phoned him and said they were closing the school. In truth we had an immeasurably small amount of snow, barely a flurry, so whomsoever decided that the Apocolypse was upon us was overreacting just a tad. Within five minutes of passing the school the sun came out and only disappeared when it set at about 6pm. Perhaps it's the litigious society in which we live but there was no 'let's wait and see', more 'someone mentioned snow, get home before we all die'.

The Swiss, and our friend in Finland, must laugh uproariously at us every winter.