Hi Bill & All
>
> The other interesting idea often discussed is that winter sunshine on the box surface heats the inside of the colony. I often get that argument from folks that wrap colonies with tar paper thinking they get a net solar gain because the surface of the tar paper feels hot. Does someone have data on this?
A couple of years ago we had a winter(late Jan-mid Feb) with a period of several days of bright sunshine followed by a few extremely cold nights(-20C). My apiary is divided into two sections. The river hives are in a mixed bush lined with white cedars along the river to the south. The hives get filtered sun most days. The pond hives are open to direct sun from late morning till sunset most of the year. My losses that year were 6 of 7 of the pond hives(lots of sun), and 1of 7 of the river hives(filtered sun). I attributed the heavy losses in the pond(sunny) hives to them breaking cluster during the sunny days and being caught out during the cold nights. All the hives were packed the same with black coreplast slip-on covers, no insulation except on the inner cover. i’m sure that Etienne would consider -20C to be balmy. I am in awe of his success keeping bees in the Yukon.
Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada 44N80W
Canada’s banana belt
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