Box design and insulation remains one of the hot topics within the native bee community.
Over the years we’ve seen many claims that you need good insulation or thick hardwood for our hive boxes. I guess it makes sense in our heads that everything needs good insulation and we can help by providing it for our bees within the box design.
We’ve also heard claims, even very recently that stingless bees don’t generate or regulate heat. Most experienced bee keepers now realise that stingless bees do generate heat and that is focused within the multiple surrounding layers with air pockets called the involucrum and that can be seen in the many temperature tests that are on this website. Looking at the brood temperature and honey pot area temperature it looks like there’s no effort from the bees to warm the honey pot area or empty spaces within the hive box. If the bees wanted to heat the whole space they would build the involucrum around the whole colony including the honey pots and pollen pots though the involucrum could control humidity within the brood as well.
In Winter the bees provide their own insulation around the brood and generate heat inside that and when it warms up for summer they remove or at least reduce the involucrum. The bees are taking care of the design and temperatures of the colony themselves.
In Summer we’ve seen thick hardwood boxes be slower to gain heat but actually get hotter in the middle of the day as they can hold more heat compared to a lighter more insulative material.
From the testing done on this website we’ve seen no evidence that clearly demonstrates that one kind of box is any better than another. We may have seen a one or two degree difference here or there but does that actually make any difference to the colony? We remain open to the idea and will continue searching for evidence as we do find some interesting things along the way.
Hives placed at Pine Mountain – Winter 2023
Winter 2023, 25mm hoop pine compared to 50mm cypress. The brood temperatures are all similar and the same with the honey pot temperatures. You could say the thick cypress is slower to gain heat and slower to lose heat, but does it matter or is it any better?
Full article: https://www.nativebeehives.com/temperature-tests-2023/
Foam Cover for insulation Test – Winter 2024
The foam cover test confirmed everyone’s theories by showing it did add insulation in winter. Reducing the loss of heat but also stopping the hive from warming up during the day if left on. The best method to increase heat all around was to add the cover in the afternoon and remove in the morning. So if your hive box has great insulation is it stopping the colony from warming up?
Full article: https://www.nativebeehives.com/foam-covers-for-insulation/
Hives placed at Nanango – Winter 2024
Three hives placed at Nanango and the temperatures got down to 0.4 degrees C. The honey pot area temperatures still get down to just above ambient for all thin and thick boxes. The stronger colony in the thin box gets higher temperatures than the weak colony in the thick box so we don’t see any better performance from a thick box here. The difference is with the colony itself.
Full article: https://www.nativebeehives.com/temperature-tests-2024/
25mm hoop pine vs 50mm cypress – Summer 2023
Comparing two 25mm hoop pine hives and two 50mm cypress hives in Summer. The thick cypress boxes are a couple of degrees warmer in summer in both brood and honey pot temperatures. If we saw temperatures reach 42 degrees would the thick cypress box colony die first?
Full article: https://www.nativebeehives.com/temperature-tests-2023/
25mm hoop pine vs 50mm cypress – No Roofs in Summer 2024
Two 25mm hoop pine hives and two 50mm cypress hives in Summer. 35c ambient. All boxes were in full sun with no roofs to try get them as hot as possible. All are very similar. If anything the thick cypress box is a fraction warmer but we see no significant difference.
Full article: https://www.nativebeehives.com/temperature-tests-2024/
