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Thread: Matchsticks yes or no??

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    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    Default Matchsticks yes or no??

    Reading the BBKA monthly yesterday two articles referred to putting matchsticks under the crown board in October so it's too late for the bees to propolise up the space (!). I can understand the practice when solid floors were used and there was less ventillation in the hive. However now we (well most of us) have open mesh floors I do not believe it is:-
    a) necessary
    b) desireable
    and the matchstick method is a remnant of days before the OMF.

    I think it odd that beekeepers think they know better than the bees and open up the hive against the bees own (best) practice. Afterall bees have been keeping bees for a lot longer than us.


    Damp and condensation will be occur on cold spots so I guess the idea was to make the sides of the hive colder than the middle where the bees cluster (!) but of course any heat the bees try to create would escape up. However insulating the hive roof will mean that water vapour does not condense under the crown board and with an OMF there is plenty of ventillation available.

    In my short years of beekeeping I have never used a solid floor (even the original WBC I had, posessed a mesh floor) so can't comment on them. However in the past two winters I have overwintered 16 and 9 hives with no loss and I undersuper and insulate above the crown board. Even some weak colonies survived with a laying queen and brood found at the first inspection. There has been no sign of damp or mould in any hive. This is evidence enough to me that my system works for my Southern Poof bees.

    Does anyone still use matchsticks.

    How do others overwinter?

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    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    OMF and two inch thick poly insulation over an acrylic crown board with the feed hole covered. A quick check in mid-winter takes ten seconds ... Oxalic acid takes a couple of minutes and adding fondant requires nothing more than opening the feed hole, popping the fondant on (in clear plastic box I buy carrots in) and adding back the poly - which conveniently has a removable block cut in it for the fondant box.

    No condensation problems under the acrylic cover board whatsoever.

    I should add that this is the process for cedar or ply hives. I've got a couple of MB poly nationals in use this year as well, which also won't get the matchstick treatment.

    --
    Fatshark

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    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    These days, and with some mesh and some solid floors, always polystyrene sheets over the crownboard. Matches are only ever used to light a smoker (or fish out a suspicious larva!).

    I used to winter with feed holes open and nothing else on top (but certainly no matchsticks). Winter losses and especially learning of the losses in wood and in polystyrene of bee farmers with many colonies to compare have shown that insulating the top is sensible.

    Looking a couple of years ago at a glass crown board foolishly left on overwinter, I could see serious condensation and dripping on the cluster once it had started brood raising in earnest. So, some insulation helps them get to distant stores in the box and insulation above helps prevent drips. Condensation on the walls is fine and will give them a water source when the alternative is a risky trip out to a puddle.

    So, crown board and single sheet of 25mm polystyrene on top. In colonies where I didn't feed well enough at the right time, queen excluder, empty super, bakery fondant cut through the plastic bag, opened out like a book and laid on the queen excluder, maybe three offcuts of polstyrene on top of the fondant inside the super, crown board, single sheet of polystyrene, roof. Not a match to be seen.

    Who does the quality control for BBKA news?

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    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Adam View Post
    Does anyone still use matchsticks.
    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post
    Matches are only ever used to light a smoker (or fish out a suspicious larva!).
    The only proper use is for making a scale model of the Eiffel Tower.

    I am currently converting several of my stylish correx nucs to open mesh floor to reduce winter condensation
    I have a sheet of 8 by 4 mesh and have started to cut it into rectangles with an angle grinder.

    I follow the same routine as Adam, top insulation and no matchsticks.
    I have about half a dozen colonies on solid floors but may shift them to OMF if I have time to cobble together some more floors from my sheet of mesh.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Bridget's Avatar
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    As we are in the highlands my husband wants to wrap the hive in bubble wrap ( he has a free source). Is he mad?

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    Bubble wrap will keep rain out but also keep moisture in. I suspect the hives will sweat when the sun's on them.

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    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    Gavin,
    One of the contributors is unnamed - goes by the name of Pinguis Imperium. (Does that mean Imperial Penguin?) The other is Chris Deaves, Chair of Education and Husbandry - so one of the top bananas. He also suggests removing the porter bee escapes but I don't know if he means to leave them open or seal them up with something.

    The quality control of the BBKA rag is a bit odd. A few months ago the instruction when doing an artificial swarm was to walk 10 metres with a frame of brood with the queen on and put it in the second hive!


    I know what you mean about condensation on crown-boards. I had a sheet of perspex over a little nuc of mine last winter and I noticed it was dripping wet when I removed the roof, so a 2" slab of cellotex was placed on it. I assume that a plywood board would be better as it will absorb moisture rather than allowing it to drip. (A Warre hive has a box of absorbent stuff above the bees for the same purpose I believe).
    Last edited by Adam; 02-10-2011 at 08:48 PM.

  8. #8
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    Bridget,
    I would agree with Trog on this; ventillation is required. If one side tended to get blasted by a wet prevailling wind, then there may be some sense in it. Wet wood willinsulate less than dry.

    (If he married a beekeeper, then your husband must be mad; he can commiserate with my wife!).
    Last edited by Adam; 02-10-2011 at 08:48 PM.

  9. #9
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    Jon,
    What mesh have you got? I can cut mine with scissors!

  10. #10
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Don't know but it is heavy duty stuff which you would struggle to cut with pliers let alone scissors.

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