Hive insulation

[Shutler]

With winter setting in and temperatures reportedly dropping to -3°C here in the south, I’m curious to hear everyone’s thoughts.

At the moment, I have organic sheep's wool above the crownboard for insulation, but does anyone else wrap their hive for added protection during the colder months?

For context, it’s a National hive with a gabled roof. Would love to know what works best for you!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

noone in the UK, in their right minds wraps their hives.
But what you should do is cut a piece of 50mm PIR (celotex) to fit snuglu inside the roof and fix it permanently in place - after blocking off any 'vents'

 

[Shutler]

noone in the UK, in their right minds wraps their hives.
But what you should do is cut a piece of 50mm PIR (celotex) to fit snuglu inside the roof and fix it permanently in place - after blocking off any 'vents'

I hadn’t considered the PIR insulation approach, but it sounds like a great idea. I’ll look into getting some and making the adjustments. Out of curiosity, would the sheep’s wool I’ve added above the crown board achieve a similar effect? Really appreciate the advice.

 

[Erichalfbee]

With winter setting in and temperatures reportedly dropping to -3°C here in the south, I’m curious to hear everyone’s thoughts.

At the moment, I have organic sheep's wool above the crownboard for insulation, but does anyone else wrap their hive for added protection during the colder months?

For context, it’s a National hive with a gabled roof. Would love to know what works best for you!

50mm PIR on the crown board.
I used to do this but all my colonies are in poly now

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

would the sheep’s wool I’ve added above the crown board achieve a similar effect? Really appreciate the advice.

I'd forgotten that you said you'd used wool - and that you had a gabled roof. Yes, wool would to the trick, same, I woild seal off the vents then pack the whole roof space with wool.
Dani's idea of just putting a slab of PIR on the crownboard would work too, trouble with fagle roofs is you haven't got the luxury of the 'telescope' roof (aspecially If you have an extra deep flat roof.

 

[ericbeaumont]

wrap their hive for added protection

Best insulation for bees is more bees, so if you've reduced the hive volume so as to pack them in, treated for varroa and they're up to weight, then no more need be done except to seal lid & roof and insulate the space above. PIR outranks sheep's wool in terms of thermal efficiency.