winter hive wrap

[dto001]

Hi
Just a question does anyone have a cheap way of wrapping hives for winter I know most people don't do it but I had good experience with it last year (until i made mistake by opening it too early) but lagging jackets are fairly expensive and for 8 hives its not feasable to spend E25 per hive (I will if I have to but I'd like an easier and cheaper way if possible.

Cheers

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hi
Just a question does anyone have a cheap way of wrapping hives for winter I know most people don't do it but I had good experience with it last year (until i made mistake by opening it too early) but lagging jackets are fairly expensive and for 8 hives its not feasable to spend E25 per hive (I will if I have to but I'd like an easier and cheaper way if possible.

Cheers

Poly
Otherwise
Most beekeepers don't add anything.
Make sure you have a decent amount of insulation over the crown board, the boxes are beetight and they have sufficient stores and they will be fine.

 

[PaulCarroll]

Bee Equipment in Canterbury do a winter wrap that they say keep the hives dry and insulated. You may wish to enquire if that is what you want to do. I prefer to use a home made cover from king span or similar.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[user 6228]

50mm recticel (first posted 2013)

 

[enrico]

They will survive with or without it provided they have stores, however they do seem to build up quicker with insulation. You can buy seconds of celotex or kingspan quite cheaply.
E

 

[Erichalfbee]

These are mine....Painted now though

 

[Millet]

I have tried Celotex/kingspan cosies for the past two years and what a pain in the arse they are, they knock the crown board out of place when trying to put everything back together unless you tape the crown on first and then you have the faff on storing them when not in use polyhives are the way forward for me.

 

[madasafish]

I have tried Celotex/kingspan cosies for the past two years and what a pain in the arse they are, they knock the crown board out of place when trying to put everything back together unless you tape the crown on first and then you have the faff on storing them when not in use polyhives are the way forward for me.

I have cosies.If you place then on carefully and lower gently the crownboards don't move.

I store mine on the hives all year round... Don't have any conventional roofs..

 

[dto001]

Where did you get the cosies?

 

[JWF]

Where did you get the cosies?

They're homemade.

Personally, I have 2 inches of insulation under the roof and that works fine for me.

 

[Erichalfbee]

My crownboards don't move in winter. The bees have stuck them down. No inspections between September and first in spring

 

[charlievictorbravo]

My crownboards don't move in winter. The bees have stuck them down. No inspections between September and first in spring

Exactly! I use see-through acrylic crown boards so no need to unseal during the winter because I can, well, .. see through them to find out what's happening. That and looking carefully at the monitoring board will tell me what's going on without disturbing the bees.

CVB

 

[Teemore]

Hi
Just a question does anyone have a cheap way of wrapping hives for winter I know most people don't do it but I had good experience with it last year (until i made mistake by opening it too early) but lagging jackets are fairly expensive and for 8 hives its not feasable to spend E25 per hive (I will if I have to but I'd like an easier and cheaper way if possible.

Cheers

Several options:

1. Change to poly hives
2. Save up and buy a CDB hive - the lift is supposed to be inverted over the brood box during winter and so acts as a second wall for the hive. The double wall of a WBC does the same job.
3. Switch to deep roofs - 8"+ in depth and put some Kingspan/QuinnTherm in the roof. The deep sides of the roof drop down over the brood box and, a bit like the lift on a CDB, give an extra layer to the brood box.
4. Make sure the bees finish the Autumn with low varroa levels and sufficient stores. Then simply keep an eye on them over the Winter without excessively disturbing them and let the colony get on with things.

The bottom line is that bees insulate bees. .... that might have been mentioned once or twice on this forum in the past!

I have a mix of wooden and poly hives. I make my own roofs and except for a few that were made in a rush, all are deep roofs with some form of insulation in the roof.

 

[Clemcook]

My crownboards don't move in winter. The bees have stuck them down. No inspections between September and first in spring

I was wondering when to close them up..

 

[drex]

I was wondering when to close them up..

I know Erica knows this but beekeeping is not done by the calendar, but is better if done as dictated by the bees needs. All depends on location, microclimate etc. Her "calendar" in Wales is very different to mine in dry East Anglia, as it will be to yours. I am yet to think about extracting, then varroa, then feeding. It will be late sept, early October before I finally close up shop

 

[Erichalfbee]

I was wondering when to close them up..

Drex is quite right.
My supers are off tomorrow
Some frames will be left for bees to rob out and I will have a look at what's going on in the brood box. If the weather picks up the strongest hives may yet bring balsam in. It seems to be producing something this year. Treatment takes 15 days OAV. Feeding will be dependant on brood stores but they will get invert if needed. I'll have a final check to make sure they are queenright and do a unite or two in September then it's nite nite till spring. Occasional heft of the boxes is all I will do from mid January

 

[Erichalfbee]

PS
Treatment only if needed
I'll do a 24 hour mite drop with OAV first
I have two hygienic queens one of which is a year old and has never been treated so I plan on not treating at least her colony

 

[Bryang]

Previously I have not "wrapped" my hives for winter.. and I have always lost at least one colony...Last winter I wrapped my four hives in bubble wrap as used in glass houses... had some rolls left from a end of line sale in B&Q.... Gave them a Three layer covering... and had a super on top with two layers of kingspan. All came thru' winter and built up quickly in spring, the SBI was very impressed with the size of the colonies when he inspected in mid May.. The only colony I lost was in a Paynes poly nuc that I'd made a cosie for out of kingspan, going into winter it was a good strong colony. I've never been sucsesfull overwintering in that nuc... I must be doing something wrong.

 

[Swarm]

What is inside the hive is more important than what's outside.

 

[alfazer]

These kingspan cosies....do you keep the roof off and they fit straight onto the naked hive and crownboard? If yes, does that mean you just have a kingspan 'roof' through winter, ie. not a durable metal one?

By the way, I'll second Teemore's comment about the CDB hive. I have a few ancient ones of my own and the bees always do really well in them, any time of year. Main issue for me is the handling and moving and also that I cant put a super under the brood chamber in winter.