Bee Equipment (Mann Lake as was) sell them .Originally Posted by alancooper
Bee Equipment (Mann Lake as was) sell them .
I've never heard of anyone wrapping hives in Scotland but I'm sure that someone somewhere has tried. In fact I don't think I've heard of anyone in Scotland using 'cosies' which seem all the rage on another forum. Polystyrene hives, yes, for sure. Murray has discussed the benefit of them previously - which usually means that hives properly fed and with Varroa under control generally have losses just related to queen failure in the easier winters. Wooden hives, yes, some people put insulation (polystyrene slab, carpet, clothing) above the crownboard and that must help. But not wrapping.
Some wraps may be to help protect from green woodpeckers. Although we have a scattered population of them I haven't heard of them damaging hives here.
Interestingly (or perhaps not) this is apparently learned behaviour. In the Midlands the birds regularly targeted cedar or poly hives (they go through either with almost equal ease). I've still got one or two floors with damage from the little blighters. I've seen a few green woodpeckers in Fife but hope they have yet to learn this bad habit. I used to use DPM (damp proof membrane) as being nearly indestructible and relatively inexpensive. Condensation wasn't really an issue as they were so badly fitted ;-)
On a related point ... I've just received a big pile of bright blue and yellow Abelo hives which are on special offer at £96 for a full hive.
Freezing today but stumbled across a really bad video I made in Summer using my phone as a camera
Only watch if you are really getting bee keeping withdrawal symptoms
https://youtu.be/xsSyVFwLxgI
That might explain why I've just got 10 brood boxes all in green! You got all the nice blue and yellow ones that my better half likes
Wanna swap?
Sorry ... I chose that colour to make sure I despoiled part of Aberdeenshire in due course. A bit very near greengumbo.
First impressions were ... thank goodness that lot are painted, what a lot of fiddly bits (upper entrance blocks, feeder insulators, vents etc.) to lose and that the poly was nice and dense.
It makes a huge difference!
Meant to add I just leave off the round polystyrene crown board covers until winter. The crown board acts as a great travel screen and there is just enough lip that you can pin one of those 8 way clearer's under the center hole for clearing supers. The extra entrances do get used in a flow, if you can remember to open them. Not sure how much difference it makes at the moment but in heavy flows it does seem to reduce congestion around the main entrance. Other times they just seem to create an extra access point that needs guarding.
I made up a few splits in both wooden and poly nucs this summer. I checked the two everynucs last week, the first was split mid-June (poly 1) and the second about ten days later (poly 2). Poly 1 has done very well with brood on all 5 frames so I’ve moved it into a cedar smith hive with extra frames and fed. In poly 2 the queen was mated much later and now has 2½ frames of mostly open brood and is being fed from a top poly feeder (I might put it back on with candy in it midwinter). The entrance is closed down to about an inch with mesh and I intend to leave the mesh floor insert in to cut down on the draughts. As you’ve used them overwinter Fatshark do you have any other tips.
I've only kept a couple through Scottish winters (the rest were in the Midlands, so doesn't really count). I've lost overwintered nucs through queen failures and starvation. The former is unavoidable. The latter is. Feed them very thoroughly and be prepared to top them up if needed.
The poly nucs I like best (Everynuc by Thorne's) have a feeder at the end of the box - not ideal.
Overwintering in Paynes poly nucs was much easier - I just made a thick lid from kingspan with a central hole to hold a block of fondant directly over the cluster. Your suggestion about using the top feeder is probably wise, but if they have to travel out, up, and along they might not get there ... I'm going to butcher a couple of top feeders by drilling through the base to provide direct access.
I don't think I ever closed the bottom mesh ... I simply can't remember! The entrances on the Everynucs are an abomination and are larger than those on my double brood hives ... I just wedge a block of closed cell foam to make them much smaller (and easier to defend).
On a related point ... I make frame feeders for mini-nucs with one side made from queen excluder. I've long thought these would be an ideal way to drop food in directly next to the winter cluster.
But, after all that ... I'm not sure I'll have any to overwinter this year. Almost everything is in a full size box already ...
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks