wrote on March 14, 2017
at
12:15 pm
Hi Kevin, In Episode 105 you lamented your losses. Here's something that might help next year: - Do your hives get DIRECT sun?? The master bee keeper in my parts said "Its not whether you insulate or not, its whether you feed them and have them in the DIRECT SUN or not". The president of the MCBA said he also puts a black plastic skirt around the hive stand too. (green house affect). Keying off of those two points, I did 3 things - I wrapped them in tar paper for heat, and added a **passive solar collector** in front of each one to absorb and transfer the heat up and sugar shims. Cheap passive solar collector: A black plastic box lid (2'x3') put in a black plastic trash bag, and put those in a clear plastic trash bag - in front of the hive and sloped up toward the hive entrance, (tilt it like a solar panel, and it looks like an inflate-able black slide (cheap looking). I also threw a brick in the bag to keep it anchored from the wind. So that they get a double dose of heat from the tar paper and the passive solar collector. So even on those cold clear days, the hives still get warmed by the sun. Next year, I'm considering putting a larger thermal collector beneath (like a long mini green house along the length of the hive table, with a green-house auto-closing vent that lets hot air (only) through a small drill hole in the bottom of the hives. I'll also put insulation on the sides/back, and top of the hives ONLY , and putting up a 3 sided wind screen made from that black/grey fiberglass weed-barrier cloth. (too much?) My only question for you - did you have sugar shims directly on top of your frames? I did shims, and added home made pollen patties to it too. (See the video from beverlybees.com). I'm a 1st year beekeeper, and lucky for me, both hives are still alive - bees were pulling pollen in Feb from Aspen & pussy willows. They were buzzing in their hives yesterday, but today is the Stella Nor'Easter - 2 feet of snow expected, and the weather has been in single digits at night. So I'm not out of the woods yet. My mentors lost 5 out of 6 hives. I'm a long time listener - originally found you on youtube. Great stuff, love the gadgets. I built 'Coats' nucs in Jan, with mods for Shop vac attachments, and to be used as swarm traps. (Got a table saw for the holidays - so this is dovetailing into some other great hobbies. )
Its nice to have so many podcasts to listen to now - I listen to one every night before I go to sleep.
Keep up the good work!
...Don...