> For cold climates it is advantageous to use an inner cover which
> incorporates an inch of styrofoam between two layers of plywood...
 
> (why do people use burlap anyway? )
 
I'm glad you asked, 'cause I'm ready to answer that one.<G>
 
This afternoon I was out pulling the last supers from 80 or so colonies.
Beautiful day (26 degrees Celcius) and the bees abandoned beautifully in
an hour or so.
 
As I was doing this job, I had a chance to evaluate several treatments:
 
1.) Telescoping lid with no inner cover
2.) Telescoping lid with burlap, and
3.) Telescoping lid with our new pillows (discussed previously and
      details available with a search using 'pillow' as a key.
 
We no longer use inner covers made of plywood in summer since they are a
whole lot of extra work scraping and handling -- and they do nothing for
us in the summer.  In winter some hives do use plywood inner covers inside
the wraps, but we do hate hauling them around and using them.
 
Treatment 1 works fine, but the lids do get glued down -- bee space or
no bee space -- and we have to scrape 2,000 lids once or twice a year --
expensive in labour!
 
Treatment 2 works well, the hive is kept from drafts in spring and is
easily inspected.  There is no need to scrape burr comb from the top of
brood frames, since it causes no sealing problems.  Lids come off easily
and once scraped, need never be scraped again.  However burlap does get
chewed by the bees and is hard to fold unless you just let it hang down
-- in which case it looks kinda shabby. The good seal and lack of scraping
is the justification for using burlap.
 
Treatment 3 is new to us this year, and so far the best -- with all the
advantages of burlap since we have a cover that will accommodate a
grease patty or whatever without losing its seal,  and which does not get
chewed or require folding.  It also provides some insulation since the
Kodel (r) is of the 1" variety, and the telescoping lids never need
scraping.
 
There is another system that appeals to me and it has been described
here by our friends fron down under. It is called, I think, a hive mat.
 I have never tried it, but it appears to me to be a good idea.  Search
for "hive mat"  (The double quotes will cause the LISTSERV to find only
articles with the entire phrase, and not extraneous posts with only one
-- or the other -- of the words.  FWIW, almost every post on BEE-L has the
word 'hive' and the list of hits for 'hive' would be immense).
 
Allen
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