I wasn't going to really comment on this article due to the fact that this was previously done in much nicer detail by D Mitchell. He linked it back to the mass/volume and thermal properties of the hive enclosure for various materials.

I love my polys and all my colonies have made it through again this winter. I do have a couple of weaker colonies that will require additional help.

I typically run 9 frames in a 10 frame box and use a wooden insert on any wall exposed to the elements (not in contact with another hive). This year I ran 3 special trials with insert and without, with a slatted rack and without, and 2 colonies that struggled with mites and chalk brood. Both the sick ones are doing fantabulous. The colonies without the insert had higher mortality numbers (dead bees in outer positions) and have the smallest clusters. Not sure yet about the slatted racks as I haven't done my 1st inspection. I am also waiting for a new laptop (I killed my old one) to do my final number crunch. Feeding pollen patties triggered broodrearing as planned. I will inspect later this week to see extent of brood cycle. Long cold snowing winter. Bees are likely in the 200-250 day old range!!. Hence the reason I need to trigger early brood rearing to help them over the spring hump.

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