hive insulation

[Gilberdyke John]

Exactly. I can't see the point of a cosy during the summer.

If you have a polyhive where's the difference?

 

[user 6228]

If you have a polyhive where's the real difference? Just a matter of degree.

or even a dung covered skep
or even a tree
Bees did quite nicely in the UK before Rev Langstroth , Mr Wedmore , Mr Farrar or even Dr Butler, and almost certainly before Stonehenge was built.

 

[Webby]

If you have a polyhive where's the difference?

You don't have to faff around removing a cosy if you need to look in the hive?

 

[Gilberdyke John]

You don't have to faff around removing a cosy if you need to look in the hive?

If your cosy sits in place of the hive roof your argument fails. Lift off the roof or lift off the cosy. Where's the difference in the task?

 

[Webby]

I guess I don't want to bother with a full hive cosy when it's not needed and I have some insulation in the roof anyway.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I guess I don't want to bother with a full hive cosy when it's not needed and I have some insulation in the roof anyway.

Don't let yourself be bullied by the uber insulation brigade!

 

[Webby]

Don't let yourself be bullied by the uber insulation brigade!

I won't. Not doing that. I wanna see my hive not an ugly celotex box.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Exactly. I can't see the point of a cosy during the summer.

If you take it off for the summer, you have to store it somewhere! (see post #7)

CVB

 

[Webby]

If you take it off for the summer, you have to store it somewhere! (see post #7)

CVB

I know (see post #10)

 

[user 6228]

Don't let yourself be bullied by the uber insulation brigade!

Today the World, Tommorow South Wales

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Don't let yourself be bullied by the uber insulation brigade!

Ah but you're in Wales where I'm told the climate is warm and sunny all year round, gentle breezes waft the scent of wildflowers through the valleys and golden beaches wrap the coast. Or was that something the tourist board wrote?

 

[user 6228]

Ah but you're in Wales where I'm told the climate is warm and sunny all year round, gentle breezes waft the scent of wildflowers through the valleys and golden beaches wrap the coast. Or was that something the tourist board wrote?

Well they weren't going to write "welcome to the land of gales and freezing horizontal rain".

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Well they weren't going to write "welcome to the land of gales and freezing horizontal rain".

Sounds like the place known as lla me dos where the bards lived, music with rocks in's original exponent Buddy was born and that Terry Pratchett wrote about in his treatise on Soul Music

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well they weren't going to write "welcome to the land of gales and freezing horizontal rain".

They won't let us write what we wanted on the notices as the English get upset!!

 

[Swarm]

Well they moved here from Africa so something about the climate must have appealed to them

 

[masterBK]

But didn't they start in Asia before reaching Africa ?

http://bibba.com/honeybee-origins/

http://www.uu.se/en/media/press-release-document/?id=2365&area=3,8&typ=pm&na=&lang=en

 

[user 6228]

But didn't they start in Asia before reaching Africa ?

http://bibba.com/honeybee-origins/

http://www.uu.se/en/media/press-release-document/?id=2365&area=3,8&typ=pm&na=&lang=en

But Amm came the last time from what was then a none too warm northern Spain

Miguel, I., Iriondo, M., Garnery, L., Sheppard, W. S., & Estonba, A. (2007). Gene flow within the M evolutionary lineage of Apis mellifera : role of the Pyrenees , isolation by distance and post-glacial re-colonization routes in the western Europe *. Apidologie, 38, 141–155. http://doi.org/10.1051/apido

Franck, P., Garnery, L., Solignac, M., & Cornuet, J.-M. (1998). The origin of West European subspecies of honeybees (Apis mellifera): New insights from microsattellite and mitochondrial data. Evolution.

Han, F., Wallberg, A., & Webster, M. T. (2012). From where did the western honeybee (Apis mellifera) originate? Ecology and Evolution, 2(8), 1949–1957. http://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.312

 

[Ely]

It all depends on where you want to draw the line. You don't have to insulate at all. However, your bees will burn more energy (food stores) over the winter to stay alive and possibly affect your yearly honey harvests and winter survival may be reduced (especially with top ventilation). Not much sense in forcing them to struggle like that.

You could go over the top and build ugly hives/cosies out of insulation board to be closer to that of a natural tree environment, it depends on whether aesthetics are important to you. I personally find this a bit over the top.

I prefer the middle ground, a thick slab of insulation board in the roof all year round. The hives are aesthetically pleasing and also moderately insulated.

 

[JWF]

It all depends on where you want to draw the line. You don't have to insulate at all. However, your bees will burn more energy (food stores) over the winter to stay alive and possibly affect your yearly honey harvests and winter survival may be reduced (especially with top ventilation). Not much sense in forcing them to struggle like that.

You could go over the top and build ugly hives/cosies out of insulation board to be closer to that of a natural tree environment, it depends on whether aesthetics are important to you. I personally find this a bit over the top.

I prefer the middle ground, a thick slab of insulation board in the roof all year round. The hives are aesthetically pleasing and also moderately insulated.

I do the same, 2 inches of Celotex in the roof all year round.

 

[Ely]

I use kingspan. Fancy an argument?