Winter brrrrr

[Finman]

The simple answer is: Cold does not kill bees,damp does...

total rubbish!

Why do hives die more during cold winter?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I'm hoping not to have to feed fondant to my 14 x 12s but the national might well need some. I have my kingspan in two layers of 25mm with a rectangle cut out to fit a 25mm plastic container into which the fondant goes. So I've got one layer with fondant in the middle with another layer on top. When fondant has gone it's easy to remove the tray and replace with the cut out.
It might be easier to put the fondant straight on the top bars though and keep your insulation intact but the above worked for me last year.

 

[oliver90owner]

No top ventilation means just that. Most of my crownboards are simple sheets of ply. No holes, no nothing. Top ventilation is not needed when using OMFs, ever. Some top insulation (the 25mm in the roof remains all year, too).

Haven't fed them during the winter for the last 5 years and not expecting to this year, even with only ten frames.

RAB

 

[BKF Admin]

total rubbish!

Why do hives die more during cold winter?

I think the majority of posters understand my post.

Cold is not such an enemy of bees as damp conditions are.
Does that translate better into Swedish ?

 

[drstitson]

re top ventilation

just to reinforce for anyone who is being pressured by out of date mentor into using the matchsticks under crownboard method,

think about it. a match is around 2.5 mm (at least) thick. 4x0.25x46 = 46 cm2 hole in the top of your hive.

NO top ventilation needed with OMF.

 

[Swarm]

Nor top insulation either, if the past two winters are anything to go by. Bees managed perfectly with OMF and normal crownboards and one colony was particularly small.

 

[oliver90owner]

Nor top insulation either,

Heat rises due to convection, so the warmest part of your hive (other than the cluster) will be at the top. So most heat is lost from the top of the hive, if not insulated.

Insulation in my roofs cost under a quid - not so much more than a kilogram of sugar. Most of the food consumed during the cold winter months is for release of thermal energy, so any heat losses that are reduced (up to a certain point, of course), will be reducing the cost of their winter fuel. I don't want my bees melting the snow on the roof of the hive; I much prefer it if that energy were to stay inside the hive where it was more useful.

That is why I use insulation. Not because the bees cannot survive without it, but for the simple economics and heat balance. Perhaps that is partly why I did not need to feed any fondant last winter? Cosy bees will start brooding earlier than cold bees; they will be less stresed; they will survive to spring in greater numbers. All round simple economics.

RAB

 

[Hivemaker.]

Came through with no loses but then my bees are native dark bees Apis mellifera mellifera.

Same here,but then my bees are native Buckfast.

 

[Ely]

How do you do top insulation?

 

[Swarm]

Considering the temperatures and length of last winter, we seldom see much worse. I'm not talking just surviving but coming through as healthy, vibrant colonies; the small one wintered as barely a four frame cluster. I simply think it's belt and braces and not a priority, that's all.

 

[busybee53]

I agree with RAB who put it very well. For those asking about insulation I use a polystyrene ceiling tile, wrapped in tin foil, above the crown board and under the roof. Cheap and cheerful.

 

[Erichalfbee]

How do you do top insulation?

Cut a piece of Kingspan/Celotex...lots of other types just Google to fit inside your roof. 50mm good, 25mm probably as good.Put a small tile....I use a terracotta floor tile as I have loads....in the middle,on top twixt roof and insulation so that your roof can breathe and there you go......insulated
OR you could cut it to fit outside the roof battens then you won't need the tile.

 

[Finman]

I think the majority of posters understand my post.

Cold is not such an enemy of bees as damp conditions are.
Does that translate better into Swedish ?

those are not alternatives, cold or damp.

I do not understand that old slogan because you may arrange the both, that no hives will die.

Im sure that majority do not undestand that at all.

Mesh floor was introduced into England with polyhive about 20 years ago. How did bees survived before that?

 

[huntsman666]

< How did bees survived before that?>

Different bees now.

Britain has generally lost Apis mellifera mellifera their native dark bee. Best replacement is the Buckfast, a hybrid of many types but bred for british conditions.

What have you got Finman?

 

[Hivemaker.]

< How did bees survived before that?>

Different bees now.

What just in the last twenty years since mesh floors arrived,before that it was all AMM is that what your thinking.

Italian bees do well in Finland.

We lost most of the AMM because they were not well adapted,prone to disease.

 

[huntsman666]

<We lost most of the AMM because they were not well adapted,prone to disease.>

Don't think so. They managed well enough on their own before we 'domesticated' them.

Imports once in, never go home.

 

[victor meldrew]

<We lost most of the AMM because they were not well adapted,prone to disease.>

Don't think so. They managed well enough on their own before we 'domesticated' them.

I believe you lost your Amm because of a rush to change to other types after the situation on the Isle of Weight when no varroa treatment was around.

Imports once in, never go home.

No varroa treatments in the fifties ? Maybe because there was no varroa .
Huntsman meant acarine . There! request acquiesced to
VM

 

[huntsman666]

I've edited that, can you kindly do the same?

Should have been acarine.

Thanks.

 

[Gardenbees]

Couldn't agree more with the "no top ventilation" school. Last winter was colder than it has been here for years, but both my colonies did very nicely and built up quickly in spring, with their OMF open over winter.

For top insulation I put an empty super on top of the crown board, packed with a cloth bag full of parcel insulation (the polystyrene beans that some companies still insist on using despite the ready availability of more sustainable options...). If I want to feed at any stage, e.g. bung some fondant in if things get really tough, then I just lift the bag out and take the small bit of covering wood away from the centre feed hole, slap a bag of fondant on, and pile the bag of insulation back on top.

 

[drstitson]

"the polystyrene beans that some companies still insist on using despite the ready availability of more sustainable options..."

many of the "poly" beans are actually starch based and dissolve in water.