I'm thinking that it would be useful to understand how much
insulation is beneficial for wintering honeybees up here in
the Great White North.
 
I mean north of the 49th.
 
Years ago, we found that 2 queen colonies wintered quite well without
insulation, but that we suffered up to 100% loss over the years with
regular single queen colonies.
 
Experiments with placing a sheet of insulation on top of the
hive (only) made a huge difference in survival, bur what is
optimal?
 
Don Peer and his buddies thought hat it would be ideal to have
the bees in a loose cluster all winter and sold their older
thinner wraps to buy newer thicker wraps. Gerry Paradis and
friends drove over from the Peace, looked in, admired the
colonies and rushed home to do similarly.
 
This was quite a few years ago.  I haven''t heard much on the
subject lately.
 
Myself, I wrap fairly late and have decided that any decent,
well fed colony doesn't need wraps until December, but after that
wraps become important.
 
I think, but cannot prove, that the maximum value from wrapping
comes in February when the bees are dwindling a bit, but are
attempting to cover a frame or three of brood.
 
If the mercury goes down to -40, as it has been known to do for
a week or more, the stress is phenomenal.
 
Now, I'm wondering whether this is something that can be measured and
if I could take some high/low thermometers and come to any meaningful
conclusions.
 
You may recall that last winter I tried several treatments.  In
the spring all seemed equal as far as survival and size was
concerned, but when it came splitting time in early May, the
ones that I did in large groups and thin insulation, just didn't
measure up.
 
So, I'm wondering if any of our researchers or extension people
have managed to get a handle on this and can say for sure what
is the correct amount of insulation.
 
And failing that, how can we design an experiment to determine it?????
Regards
 
Allen
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                                         VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta  Canada T0M 1Y0  Internet:[log in to unmask]
Honey. Bees, Art, & Futures <http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~dicka>