Insulating Bee Hives For Winter

Ventilation and overhead insulation too much moisture in a wintering hive is certainly a danger.

Insulating bee hives for winter.

Make sure the bees have enough honey or sugar syrup to get through the winter. Our agricultural practices have altered their environment so much so that s something new to contend with. Winter isn t new to them but our hives are. Be sure to include an upper entrance for your bees to help ventilate some of the moisture out of the hive and to use for cleansing flights when the lower entrance becomes blocked with snow and ice.

You can do this by insulating beehives for winter. Two final points before i describe my simple technique for wrapping. There are many myths opinions and recommendations around whether to insulate or not. It allows your bees to keep the hive warm using less energy.

A bee cozy provides a waterproof breathable layer of insulation around the hive. This saturday is our last meet the beekeeper field day for 2019. January 20 2016 daniel bee diy do it yourself hive hive wrap honeybee honeybees insulate insulation winter 1 comment wrapping the hive for winter is likely not necessary in my region. Bees have been getting through winter for thousands of years.

Securing hives for winter weather. The beekeeper s challenge is how to balance the need for maintaining hive temperature when temperatures fall below 7c 45f without creating an environment that is prone to high levels of moisture due to poor ventilation. The bees have stored about as much as they re going to before winter hits giving us a chance to evaluate their food stores and decide how much we can responsibly take from them. Be sure that your hive is properly ventilated as too much humidity and condensation is dangerous to a colony.

The bee cozy helps keeps stable temperatures and relative humidity levels due to the breathable material. However since working with bees in trees and comparing the two environments i can now see the vast difference in the thermal properties of a tree trunk and a national hive which is made with the minimum amount of wood. The topic is winter beekeeping and keeping bees alive over the winter which includes insulating the hives in some manner. In colder climates the bees may need some help retaining heat.

Less energy spent on keeping the cluster warm over winter translates into less energy consumption. To cover your hives with insulation or not. Learn more about caring for bees in the winter here. Here in oregon our honey harvest falls at the end of august.

Let s get something straight though before we dive into winterize hives. The honey harvest. In the winter bees create a cluster for warmth. Winter is at the top of that cause of death list.

I have my bees in national hives with a standard brood box and have never thought it necessary to insulate them. Keep your bees warm in the winter to reduce winter losses. However everything on a farm boils down to energy management.