Insulation in hives

[Hivemaker.]

Hey HM, what do you mean by 'not sealed'?

I have solid floors and, as far as I can tell, the bees totally seal up everything they can apart from the entrance... they glue up all the joins between boxes and even totally glue down the piece of slate I have covering up the hole in the crown board.

I would call that 'sealed' no? Or do you mean wrapping all the joins in aluminium tape when you mean 'sealed'?! Haha



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I mean sealed, as in completely sealed, no gaps holes of any kind, it was aimed toward the troll who is no longer with us.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hey HM, what do you mean by 'not sealed'?

I have solid floors and, as far as I can tell, the bees totally seal up everything they can apart from the entrance... they glue up all the joins between boxes and even totally glue down the piece of slate I have covering up the hole in the crown board.

I would call that 'sealed' no? Or do you mean wrapping all the joins in aluminium tape when you mean 'sealed'?! Haha



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Sealed means the sort of box Schrodinger's cat inhabits...or doesn't

 

[Erichalfbee]

No objection to a 50mm slab glued under the roof, but this whole hive cozy mullarkey is ridiculous overkill IMPO

A deep deep celotex roof is a very useful thing to cover the crown board/broodbox join if you have an eke of any description on as well as your roof insulation.

 

[Finman]

I use exactly this kind of inner cover: a shallow box and then insulation material inside the box.

The bottom of box is 9 mm x 50 mm wooden slices. It lets the moisture go through. Insulation material lets too the moisture go through. I use foam plastic matress as insulator. Material is recycled. 7.5 cm is proper. Rain cover is 10 cm deep.

The good point is that I can clean the inner cover with flame. Or, as I will do now, I soak the cover into boiling lye water. I can clean bottom boards in same way.

The whole material is free.

 

[bjosephd]

It seems this will be a perpetual debate between pro and and anti insulation, like the wood/poly debate. I guess if you are pro poly then you're pro celotex.

For what it's worth, this (50mm) is going on my hives with a 100mm top yet to be added. And potentially a 2nd lift to cover the entire hive below.

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[Erichalfbee]

Good stuff. After one Welsh winter I found I needed a coat of paint

 

[Finman]

It seems this will be a perpetual debate between pro and and anti insulation, like the wood/poly debate. I guess if you are pro poly then you're pro celotex.

The debate has lasted from beek generation to generation. Break through innovations have been made hundreds or thousands.

However bees stand many kind of beekeepers. Hard gangs.
.

 

[bjosephd]

Good stuff. After one Welsh winter I found I needed a coat of paint

Yes I wondered about paint. Although might not have time in the end. I guess water based wall paint kinda thing? Certainly not solvent based.

The metal darlek look is kinda fun though. Ha.


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[Finman]

Car spray paint...

 

[bjosephd]

Car spray paint...

Would that work on celotex? Or would I just end up with a solvent puddle of celotex and foil?


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[Millet]

I painted mine with brown ronseal shed/fence stain and it just the same now as it was last year, i did give it three coats mind.

 

[Finman]

.
Actually car spray paint does not stay long on poly hive and the solvent breaks the even plastic surface.

.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Some of mine are painted with masonry paint and one with car spray paint. Both OK

 

[Finman]

Out of date car paints have often very low price.

 

[madasafish]

I have found Hammerite Garage door paint - green - from ebay is cheap and very durable. My MB poly was painted three years ago and looks like the day I painted it.

Mind you I have also used Ranch paint (Aldi) and that works well as well as well as various garden fence paints...

 

[bjosephd]

Anybody know if wood peckers will bother to bash through 50mm of celotex and then through the pine box? Or should I be ok with the celotex as confusing enough for them?


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[user 6228]

depends on the woodpeckers. They are frequent in the garden but ignore the hives and go after the abundant ant nests in the lawn.

 

[Finman]

Anybody know if wood peckers will bother to bash through 50mm of celotex and then through the pine box? Or should I be ok with the celotex as confusing enough for them?


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Do something then when they have started it.
.50 mm celotex is no problem to the wood pecker. And then it collides with pine box?
.

 

[bjosephd]

depends on the woodpeckers. They are frequent in the garden but ignore the hives and go after the abundant ant nests in the lawn.

We get 2 types in the orchard, but very rarely this year.

And yes, mostly they love the multitude of ant hills! But I'm not sure how accessible ants are in winter.

Last year I wrapped the hives in MannLake's protective stuff, but it's a logistic ballache trying to slot the stuff in along with the insulation so was just trying to avoid more work!


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[Finman]

.
This year I have had a wild cat family in my cottage yard. Wood peckers have stayed away from yard when two kitten are walking around all the time on the yard .

Last winter wood peckers disturbed to death two hives.