Just following up on this brief discussion from last month...has anyone weighed a quilt box before and after the winter, with various amounts and types of fillings (wood shavings, leaves, pine needles, etc.) to determine how much moisture is absorbed from the bees' metabolization of the honey?

I have read that some beekeepers overwinter with quilt boxes to provide top-of-hive insulation and absorb some/much of the water produced within the hive during the winter months, but I'm not sure I get the moisture part. Alternatively, some folks use Homasote for the same purposes.

The upshot of David's math (roughly confirmed by Randy last month) is that if you go into winter with (for round numbers) 100 lbs. of honey on a hive, the bees’ metabolism and respiration will produce roughly 67.5 lbs. of water (the weight of 30.68 liters). This 100 lbs. of honey is roughly 8.1 gallons, and the 67.5 lbs. of water is also 8.1 gallons (at 8.34 lbs. per gallon). So a gallon of honey consumed by the bees during the winter produces approximately a gallon of water.

I now have ½” Homasote boards on top of all of my hives, under 1” of pink Styrofoam insulation. For ventialtion, my lower entrance is completely open (with hardware cloth mouse guard), with  the inner cover notch left open. According to the Homasote website http://www.homasote.com/products/440-soundbarrier the ½” Homasote has an R value of 1.2, compared to R=5 for the 1” pink Styrofoam insulation (and R=10 for 2”). The volume of a ½” Homasote board the size of an inner cover is about 161 cubic inches, or about 0.7 gallons (231 cubic inches per gallon). The maximum water absorption of the Homasote by volume is 7%, so the Homasote board can only hold about 0.05 gallons of water, or about 0.6% of the water equivalent produced by the bees from 100 lbs. of honey. So, the Homasote is basically irrelevant for the water issue – it’s just an insulator and the pink insulation is a way more effective insulator.

I don’t know what the water absorption and insulation value of a quilt box with wood shavings might be, but I tend to think it’s closer to the Homasote than the pink insulation.

Thanks,
John

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