Insulate or not?

[Swarm]

Mine are Cedar, reduced OMF with 25mm insulation above crown board and Abelo poly roofs. My landlord does cover crown board holes at least, sometimes too much space, like when he forgot to take feeders off, no insulation. My friend leaves the holes open and often too much space with box configuration and no insulation again.
Year upon year there is no difference between them, they all thrive. I gave up trying to preach insulation to them ages ago. Healthy bees with sufficient stores is the main concern for Wintering.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Your mod of omitting the battens great but surely weakens the structure of the roof to a degree?

Which is further strengthened by the big slab of glued in insulation

 

[Arfermo]

Which is further strengthened by the big slab of glued in insulation

I misread my earlier reply. JBM was talking about the CB not the roof. Was interrupted by a knock from roof repairer (who has promised not to rip me off - don't they all?) and got distracted. Apologies.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Your mod of omitting the battens great but surely weakens the structure of the roof to a degree?

No - the battens have no structural role at all, they are not there to reinforce anything - they are just tacked on to give you a void space in the roof (which is a vector for damp) I can still use a deep roof as a hop up when I'm getting the last super on or off

 

[Arfermo]

No - the battens have no structural role at all, they are not there to reinforce anything - they are just tacked on to give you a void space in the roof (which is a vector for damp) I can still use a deep roof as a hop up when I'm getting the last super on or off

But roofs these days are made of softish wood shavings dross type of stuff and cannot be compared with the ply of yesteryear for structural strength. I soak the stuff they use with wood rot preserver to give extra strength but I don’t like them but no choice now - unless one makes ones own of course. Battens for me but I get your point absolutely.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

But roofs these days are made of softish wood shavings stuff

No - it's WBP, it may not be quite as structurally robust as ply, but it's resilient, strong and resists water.

 

[Niv]

But roofs these days are made of softish wood shavings dross type of stuff and cannot be compared with the ply of yesteryear for structural strength. I soak the stuff they use with wood rot preserver to give extra strength but I don’t like them but no choice now - unless one makes ones own of course. Battens for me but I get your point absolutely.

But the battens are only attached to the side of the roof, they do nothing structurally, you cant even attach them at both ends as the battens supplied are not long enough - the only way you can add strength with battens is if you are replacing the ones supplied with longer ones - is that what you are doing?

 

[hemo]

OSB is used a lot on roofs now all my wooden have OSB for the tops.
I keep having issues with water ingress on the corners with the metal so have removed the metal and fibre glassed them down to the old vented scallopes.
Reutilised the metal roof in the store shed as lids for supers /broods.

 

[fiat500bee]

My insulated covers are nearly ready and I'm about to setup the hives at more or less their winter configuration. It seems a bit daft to put on my bee-cosies just now; it was 20C here yesterday. I will know when it gets really cold, but when do insulating beekeepers usually tuck their bees in for the winter?

 

[Swarm]

Insulation wise, all year round.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Insulation keeps excess summer heat out and during winter keeps valuable heat in. Polyhives use this to good effect all year round .

 

[madasafish]

My insulated covers are nearly ready and I'm about to setup the hives at more or less their winter configuration. It seems a bit daft to put on my bee-cosies just now; it was 20C here yesterday. I will know when it gets really cold, but when do insulating beekeepers usually tuck their bees in for the winter?

My poly covers are on all year.

 

[fiat500bee]

My poly covers are on all year.

Brilliant....I'll be fitting them as soon as the roof paint is dry. Although I've made them with a removable cover I think I'll leave them off in summer as they are a neat fit that it will be a PITA removing at each inspection. But thank-you.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Brilliant....I'll be fitting them as soon as the roof paint is dry. Although I've made them with a removable cover I think I'll leave them off in summer as they are a neat fit that it will be a PITA removing at each inspection. But thank-you.

And you’ll have to have different ones to accommodate your growing tower of supers.