yep- we added some aluminum foil insulation stuff to the roof and a layer of coreflute- and we hot wax dipped the roof and added more screws. After just one year the roof had become rickety- there were gaps between all the joints. I don’t think you can get away with a mere tung oil treatment for the cedar roof- it’s not sufficient. Now the roof is much better and should be water and draft proof. As we have no upper ventilation I can’t see any harm in filling the roof with insulation (maybe wool) over the coldest part of winter. Especially so with the flow super left on- it should help the bees keep the entire hive warm and reduce honey consumption- Also I think if you can keep the ceiling of the hive inside as the warmest spot- it will stop water condensing there and falling back down through the brood… I can’t think of any reason not to do it.
The hive ventilation/insulation warm roof theory I am going with is this one:
Looking again at my own photos above- I only just noticed- we had left the queen excluder in place… I bet that had something to do with the bee deaths in the roof. I bet the hive was so crowded- the excluder likely partially waxed up- the hole in the inner cover restrictive to traffic— bees got trapped upstairs and starved… I’m an idiot! Doh!
I read somewhere if you keep your hives too warm, the bees are tricked to think its brood time and therefore consume more, especially those Italians.
Bit of an oversight with that QX, hey? It happens so easily, seems a little thing. I will paint the outside strip of the QX a slightly different colour, thanks for the reminder.
Great how we learn from each other and can prevent future mistakes.
