Matchsticks yes or no??

[madasafish]

I started beekeeping last year having read The Barefoot Beekeeper (amongst about 20 other books) and attended our local BBKA apiary..

I have 4x TBH and two warre hives ( one with OMF, one with solid floor) but am by no means wedded to all the ideas espoused in the book. It must be obvious to anyone that an insulated roof is better than a non-insulated one and a floor needed in very cold and windy weather.. So I ignored part of his instructions and did so.

After a -18C winter and snowdrifts I am glad I did.

I insulate on top of the TBH topbars - with carpet underlay and then have an insulated roof. And shut off the OMFs with a (loose fitting ) plank. I did get condensation - on the walls - which ran down and out the gap in the plank/hive boundary and froze to a rather fetching 100mm long icicle.

Both hives survived.

The Warre plan based on the sawdust roof is imo based on 1800s technology so I use a fully insulated (100mm of roof insulation board) , Will be interested to see how it survives.

The matchstick thing I read. I mentally dismissed it like the Forager who clearly condemns something without using one.. (In medieval days his attitude would have resulted in drowning witches etc). And the defence of the Forager in this months News basically said the Forager was wrong.

My experience of beekeeping is there is a lot of learned knowledge but also it's treated as a craft and not a science. I am still a member of the BBKA but they print a load of conventional stuff which is in my view out of date and outmoded by modern materials.

The unwillingness of UK beekeepers to adopt insulated hives is a case in point.

For the record I have just finished construction of my first fully insulated 4 foot TBH...hinged roof and fully insulated floor.

(Unfortunately too late to fill this year )

Be interesting to see how it goes.

( I trained as a physicist so a lot of what I read and see in beekeeping is anathema .. )