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I would leave the insulation on, what harm can it do? I left my insulation on all last year.

When people give talks on bees they should give their USDA Plant Hardiness Zone because advice good for zone 9a doesn't work in Zone 3b.

How big is the single entrance of the hive? Does the size stay the same all year or do you reduce the entrance for the winter?

*** it’s not the other frame.. it’s the sides of THE FRAME they are on (front /back wall). They do it best when they can propolize something to the frame above them. The bees create a subtle breeze simply by moving. This is coordinated to move air around them. It’s best subtly seen when bees don’t have an extremely tight emergency“survival” cluster. If they have a well established internal control, you see it. When you pop the lid, you destroy it. They have to work hard to create the subtle pressure system. It’s like barometric pressure concept… on the frames they are occupying. It requires virtually minimal amount of energy. It’s like your hand. Just you moving it creates a breeze. A cluster is a slow mo circulation fan. Now the question is it tied to the hot /cold sides (the direction they decide to move air during cold dearths).

You are correct. If you put a piece of foam packing sheet or mesh over the cluster frames in fall, the bees will use propolis to seal the sheet/mesh to the frames, allowing them optimal efficiency. Bees definitely need something over them to propolize. They need to use their cluster slight movements to stir air slowly.

The bees physically move up/down the comb, gently stirring air very subtly. Like a blender. A microscopic slow rotation. It’s maintenance mode. Like a slow hurricane on the comb. Unless they are disturbed, bees will develop a routine collectively. They use environmental pressure to regulate to.

How big would you make your entrance if you have great insulation on top and decent insulation on the sides? Like could i cut the entrance in half of your recommendation for a single entrance and single 10 frame box (5cmX1cm for a 5 frame nuc)

Everytime i think of you wintering your hives up there, im amazed. I love how you use physics to assist where possible

I’m down here in Iowa. I run mostly Carni’s w/some Italian crosses & Buckfast bees. Our last pollen is goldenrod. We had it available until the end of September beginning of October. I stop all feeding both liquid & pollen sub by November. I was making my last hive inspections in the beginning of November to make final preparations for winter. Most of my queens were shut down and broodless. I was able to do 2 OA treatments after that. We’ve been down to single digits but not below zero yet (Fahrenheit). We’ve had some warm ups for cleansing flights. I have some nucs wintering on top of double deeps w/double screen board for heat from the bottom. So far only lost 2 nucs. There was a lot of poop in there which leads me to believe it was dysentery or nosema. I want to invest in a microscope so I can analyze the bee guts. I have another nuc which is still alive but has a lot of poop inside which is concerning. They are a large cluster. We have 2 more months to go. Usually after February our winter is pretty much over. If you can keep the bees from starving then your good to go. Keep up the great work!! Your videos have been very educational. You make a great difference in the beekeeping community!! Happy new year!!

I will be attending your Friday 1pm microscopy class at NAHBE, i am considering starting to build all of my boxes out of 2x lumber this round. Would love to discuss if you have time while at NAHBE. THX. P.S. We are in central Oklahoma.

Great description of a Hive and how it functions in Winter. Not a critique of you or your information, I think you do a great job with your collection of data and presentation. Why do people think a "condensing" hive is something new, Condensing is a function of all hives? Many beekeepers in the Colder Climate like you, have used these style of systems for a very long time. They just used different materials then we are able to with out modern materials. Did beekeeping move away from the older techniques? Thanks for another excellent video, Blessed Days...

I think Winter bees are bored bees.😂 Some areas have bees season all most year long, their Winter hives/bees sure function a bit different then a North beekeepers.

If you have time, stop by RP Beeworks booth. Would love to talk to you about insulated hives. We have been doing it in Texas for years to help with heat.

makes sense to me to insulate since wild colonies often live in tree cavities which much has some decent enough R value with only one small opening.

I have been playing with insulation since 2017 in my nuc yards. My best results were last winter. I wintered my nucs in 4 frame boxes, 3 high, that's 4 over 4 over 4. I have four colonies on a pallet and wrapped them as one unit. R15 on top and R10 on sides. The insulation only covers the top 2 hive bodies of each nuc. I noticed on sunny days that the lowest box is not covered with Styrofoam, which can collect solar heat, and we know heat rises. In comparison to the two deep nucs, not all were 3 deep high, the two deep pallets were completely covered with foam, and they stayed clustered on sunny days vs. the others that had no sign of any cluster. The spring growth of those nucs collecting solar gains was incredible. They grew into 10 frame colonies and a nuc split off by May, which is incredibly for my area. Insulation is a double-edged sword, but I found a way around it.

I just had a slight warm up where the girls could fly a little. During this time, there was a mass ejection where the healthy bees were hauling out dead bees. Here's the problem though, some of them were still partly alive, but they were moving slow. I noticed on many of them that they had smaller than normal abdomens. And then I noticed a lot of the bees that were taking these bees outside also had smaller than normal abdomens. The hive is still have and there is still stores, and in fact I also just added some hivealive fondant yesterday, just in case. But this fall there wasn't much pollen, there was so little that they didn't even rear drones this season (I got the hive in July so I'm not sure what they did previously) but they definitely seemed nutritionally stressed. I'm considering putting on some pollen in the hopes of maybe getting some new brood to replace the bees I've lost already, as I've had to clear the landing board many times as it was clogged up with bodies. Would you put pollen supplement down as a last ditch effort to get them through the winter?

I'm assuming that playing around with your spreadsheet criteria (backwards) can also help determine what my R Value targets should be locally to stay in the "green" (cell G30 for Singles). So if our local avg winter temp is 0 degC the R values required may be lower than someone with an Avg at -10 degC... am I interpreting this correctly? Also - is there a flip side to this for Summer temps, or it's not the same modeling approach? Thanks

Interesting stuff! After decades of keeping honeybees I only began insulating my hives about four years ago. The benefits I've witnessed have made it worth the extra time and expense: fewer winter losses, less honey consumed, and very large brood nests in late winter/early spring for these VSH Italians.

Hello. It is great information. I would like to hear your opinion about insolation beside the bees cluster. I think if you use insolation inside the beehive, then it can be better than outside. Thank you.

Etienne I like to ask back, do you insulate all the walls of your home? Great numbers to reflect on. Thank you.

We appreciate all the great information, Etienne. Thank you for doing these videos and have a great winter. 🐝🐝

😁👋

Last week I observed a worker over the course of about 15 minutes appearing to quite intentionally using the corpse of a couple of dead workers to aide in reducing the entrance to the hive. I have quite small entrances currently (put on in late fall as part of a wasp defense strategy). Seeing your worker tumble and fall off the edge of the cliff caused me to wonder if she was actually trying to toss the dead bee out or perhaps engaging in some dynamic hive air flow conditioning. I'm hoping to catch more footage of workers manipulating dead bees as insulation blocks, but it would be almost predictably fascinating if in addition to fanning and other air conditioning behaviours, bees will also set up their own barriers. I'm in Victoria and the the nighttime temperatures have been hovering in in the low single digits. The placement of my hives is such that it they aren't particularly shielded by the wind. The windy weather we've been having down south here are such that perhaps this behaviour is more about blocking wind than specifically thermal gradient control from static temperature differences in and outside the hive. Anyway, just thought I'd pass on my observation.

Can you share what sensors you are using and where you purchased them? Am I correct that they are wireless and don’t have a power source?

Hi Etienne, your bees are carnica bees or buckfast bees? Or some other? Thanks for the videos!

Thanks Etienne. Great information. Thanks for sharing. Interesting perspective.... I never considered the honey frames as insulation. Now I am. Glad I leave ample amounts for them. I enjoy foundationless frames in the overwintering boxes (both honey frames & brood frames). They allow the honey bees to travel from frame to frame better than standard vintage commercial frames with plastic foundation.

Merry Christmas, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS. So many people do not understand the difference in R and M Factors and how the Energy Transfer works, it's very difficult to get people to understnad that haven't worked in an industry that dealt with it. Dry sugar doesn't insulate well at all but it does cause a resistance to the transfer of energy, so it actually does have a R-value. It's just very small and you are 100% right it should be used as insulation, works better as an edible moisture absorbent.

Thanks for the videos, Etienne. Great information, and I always learn something to help get my bees through the winter. 🐝

150lbs of honey for a deep super is impressive. Honey is heavier up North, I have never seen a deep frame weigh 15lbs. The most I have seen a super weigh is 85lbs

A deep frame is about 5lbs of honey max. 50 lbs production from a ten frame super is typical

Well done. Explaining the differnce between R-factor and the M-factor can be trying sometimes. Thank you.

Regarding your table of heat conduction/retention properties... for the honey data line - is that just the properties of honey exclusive, or is it the combination of honey & comb measured together?

Hello Etienne! I want to ask about your sensors in hive. What type of sensors are you using and how much did they cost? i put some sensors to measure temp. and humidity but i would like to measure CO2 level but those kind of sensors are SO EXPENSIVE!

MOAR CHARTS!! Love your channel Etienne, thanks for standing out in the frosty beeyard & for the deep dive in thermoregulation.

Hey I have a question can you hit the bees with OA vapour when it’s in the -10 ?

Great bit and pieces of information, a lot of beekeepers don't understand the Thermal Process that the bees and we deal with. So many just follow what they see on YT with out understanding what they are actually dealing with. Thanks for sharing, Blessed Days...

I am doing a little thing I only have a entrance one inch no top vent well insulated and they seem to be doing great

I have langthworth poly hives they don’t have any plastic and there pretty fair price I can get the hive for 150 each that’s top bottom and box I use wood supers for Summer honey

I don’t know why they need to use plastic on a poly give

Interesting. I did not realize that plastic was more conductive of heat than wood. I have been wondering if mouse guards are worth the trouble. I am not sure if they are needed for keeping mice out of healthy colonies, or if they are just good for keeping mice from making a mess in dead outs.

This chart (live CO2 and O2 levels - click Weekly) is what I have been monitoring. I am trying to find the right balance at about 2-3%. I will use this to help me find the optimal size. Remember they go into ULMR (Utra-low metabolic rate at low oxygen so they can survive and deal with it). The risk is if we get a rapid warm-up of 10 to 20C. That would really mess with the internal dynamics. app.datacake.de/dashboard/d/4b10cbc3-9735-4b6c-b0ac-eb796d22b703

Given your heat conductivity ratings.... even though plastic is a more conductive material, how does that play out in the case of something like an Anel hive box that is polyurethane internal but plastic external? Does the polyurethane negate the loss due to plastic covering?

So you're the one with the drones scaring everyone lol just kidding buddy, stay warm, merry Christmas to you and your family

Thank you for what you do! I've been wintering for about 10 years on two 3/4 beds, without additional insulation. Honey consumption is somewhat higher, but the explosion of the bee nest is very strong in spring.

What size of entrances do you use?

I love your logo. Very cute

Very well done, thanks for this, many people don't understand how natural ventilation works.

I wintered bees in plastic pro nuc with a jar lid hole cut out and not even a jar in it. I felt bad and threw handful of grass over it one day.We had -13 f last winter ..they lived until spring rains came. Healthy bees winter in anything...

Thank you for the details and your time for making these videos. I insulated my hive over the summer which let them self-regulate their environment when it was over 100℉ outside. Now in the winter I see they are maintaining 86℉ in side their double deeps while the temps outside dip below 20℉ (Massachusetts). They are using very little energy to maintain the internal temperature. R-10 on the sides, R-40 on the top, closed screen bottom board for drainage. Monitoring inside temp. humidity & weight. Thanks again for all you analysis!