Winter insulation/ventilation

[Finman]

.
All insulation boads are too soft as inner cover. Bees bite them.
In spring ants rise over he cover and make theis nest into styrofoam cover.

 

[Finman]

"bees keep the core of the colony at say 30'C over winter"

AFAIK this is not the case.

1. clustered bees act as good insulator
2. little heat radiated by cluster

Core temp only needs to be high for brood NOT wintering bees.

Not sure of temperature in centre of cluster but immediately above it may drop to 8-10 degrees.

In my level those all non fit to beekeeping.


If the cluster has 30C, it has brood. Non brood has 23C temp.

Bees try to find a tree hole or something which acts as insulator.
Bees in nature make entrance smaller to make less ventilation

Bees generate heat to keep them warm and then they die when the food is finished.

In Alaska bees die in winter because they do not use insultaed hives and they use southern bee strains. So beekssee better kill the bees than try to winter them.

 

[Finman]

..

Your insulation and ventilation knowledge seems very bad.
It has been written so much.

 

[REDWOOD]

OMF open no roof insulation as my hives have a roof top board constructed 3/4 solid wood and sides of over six inches. Bees have done ok this winter.