Hive Insulation

[Nbw]

Does anyone on here wrap their hives in insulation?

Having lost a couple of hives last year in the cold I was looking at these. Do others use these on their hives?

Cheers
Nick.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Having lost a couple of hives last year in the cold

The cold may be an easy target to blame, but was that the case? in general, last year was pretty mild.
There are plenty of other factors that may cause the demise of a colony, the usual suspects are inadequate feeding, queen failure/poorly mated queen, low bee numbers/poor colony strength going into winter (which can trigger all kinds of other issues) varroosis, the list goes on and on, lack of 'insulation' comes right at the bottom of the list and wrapping the hive in a blanket or similar is never going to save a colony.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I agree.
OP is in Essex. Not exactly Siberia

 

[Erichalfbee]

Does anyone on here wrap their hives in insulation?

I used to
https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/hive-insulation.57663/#post-920898
But all colonies are in poly now.

 

[Sutty]

Does anyone on here wrap their hives in insulation?

Having lost a couple of hives last year in the cold I was looking at these. Do others use these on their hives?

Cheers
Nick.

Looking at what they are made of they don't sound like much insulation.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Does anyone on here wrap their hives in insulation?

A number of us on here put a piece of 50mm PIR (Kingspan, Celotex etc) at the top of the hive. That could be inside the roof or on top of the crownboard inside an eke. This is one of the frequently recurring topics here so you'll find pictures and many different approaches if you open a search.

You asked about 'wrapping'. That is much less common. Those of us with wooden hives generally opt just for top insulation. There's some science behind that too as you'll discover.

 

[Phill M]

I have built my hives out of recticel PIR. 60mm all side's. 30mm floor and 100mm roof.
All nice and cosy.
Phill. M .

 

[JamezF]

I have built my hives out of recticel PIR. 60mm all side's. 30mm floor and 100mm roof.
All nice and cosy.
Phill. M .

I've recently made some 5-frame nucs from PIR and had idly contemplated having a go at a full-size hive over the Winter some time. I'd probably attempt something that retained the standard national footprint though so I could re-use floors etc.

Do you have any photos of yours showing the construction?

James

 

[Phill M]

I have. I see we have 2 threads running. I put some pics in the other thread.

 

[Phill M]

My hives are all 14 x 12.
32 frames in each.
Phill. M .