When to take insulation off?

[Finman]

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Rab, those things have been reseached very well and no need to debate about that.

But that argument, that bees eate same amount of food, non dependent on temperature, is not rare.

Another argument is that hive has same amount of honey do they must draw combs or not.
That is amazing and against all reseaches, but some do not mind what they say.

I hope that helps, if not, change your medication

 

[jet]

Hi all. First post and all, and new to beekeeping.. hoping to pick up my first colony this spring.

However your discussion here about insulation got me thinking. Why aren't the sides of hive bodies insulated further? I see some say the advantage of the polystyrene hives is the added insulation. Combining this with the fact I am having my cavity walls filled next week got me thinking. Couldn't you do something similar by sandwiching some polystyrene (say 25 or 50mm) between two wooden sides? Hopefully that's not a completely stupid question!

 

[Finman]

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If you like wood, cover polyhive with panels or what ever. No one knows what is inside.

Aluminium woud be modern.

 

[Poly Hive]

Welcome jet, and to be honest with you one of the main reason for poly units, apart from the bonus of less weight is the warmth of the sides.

Colonies in poly will have near full sides of brood in the frames next to the sides.

Colonies in timber usually have considerable amounts of pollen next to the brood box wall with possibly some brood.

The net gain in poly is near a full frame of brood which amounts to a considerable gain in bees. In Nat some: 4500 Langstroth some 7000.

A lot of bees more per hatch.

PH