I needed to insulate the ply covers on my observation hive. I made insulation sandwiches using off-cut material that was given to me over the years. I used silicone to bond everything together. The first photo shows the material used before it got sealed with silicone.
looks like they are going to be nice and warm! Me likes.
When that foil insulation first came out, I had an industrial use for it but had to provide the Rvalue (insulation value). It took quite a bit of research as the insulating value can’t be calculated the traditional method because of the reflective surfaces on both sides. It was different than fiberglass or styrofoam. Anyways when the answer finally came back, it was the equivalent of 6" of fiberglass insulation…R28…think your observation hive will be just fine.
In one of our beehouses, we lined the inside of our beehouse with foil insulation plus we had R15 (3") fiberglass insulation in the framing…bees loved it.
Hi & thanks Doug. Last year I proved that insulating the sides helped the bees because they produced more brood on the sides facing the perspex & ply. The perspex & ply only totaled 10 mils. Now it totals 30 mils. Previously I had polystyrene siliconed to the ply but it got rather shabby & dirty looking.
That’s what I find too…all sorts of interesting things happen in the hive when “total comfort” is provided. It takes two times of removing those outside brood feed frames, spreading capped frames of brood to the outside positions, and then inserting waxed plastic foundation frames before the brood nest is stretched as wide as it can be. Then there is solid brood from side to side…but only possible if the ambient temperature doesn’t fluctuate. Our bees hold the inside temperature of that beehouse at exactly 27C…for months on end. Of course during winter the temperature is dropped artificially to induce dormancy.
Hi Doug, I don’t think we can over insulate a hive, as I’ve read other people suggest. I don’t think bees would reject a hollow in a tree if the hollow met all of the basic requirements except the wall thickness was too thick.
I forgot to mention in my previous post how the bees in my observation hive also drastically reduced the amount of internal fanning & washboarding on very hot days after I increased the insulation on the side panels.
