Winter and Summer thermal hive cover for wooden hives

This hive cover will convert a wooden hive into a warm in winter and cool in summer home for bees

A simple PIR foam box (Kingspan,Reticel, celutex) box. internal dimensions 10mm larger than hive note sealed internally and externally with foil tape.



that fits over the hive minus its original roof



to give a really well insulated hive



This was designed as a simple drop over cover for std wood hive.
This can be further improved by placing the wooden hive on a sheet of foam and making the cover deeper to form a dartington style entrance.

NOTE: internal vertical seams need cloth tape to protect from the sharp external corners of the hive

Ho Derek,

Is that 50mm PIR board ?

I'm working on my next hive (only planning stages) - following the same 'Dartington' style I already have but made out of 50mm Kingspan with an outer skin of either sterling board or thin marine ply to give it a bit more rigidity and I was hoping that 50mm PIR would be sufficient insulation. From the looks of your 'hyper lid' I'm on the right track.

pargyle said:

Ho Derek,

Is that 50mm PIR board ?

I'm working on my next hive (only planning stages) - following the same 'Dartington' style I already have but made out of 50mm Kingspan with an outer skin of either sterling board or thin marine ply to give it a bit more rigidity and I was hoping that 50mm PIR would be sufficient insulation. From the looks of your 'hyper lid' I'm on the right track.

Click to expand...

PIR = Poly isocyanurate ... 50mm is rigid enough but is easily penetrated by sharp objects.

derekm said:

PIR = Poly isocyanurate ... 50mm is rigid enough but is easily penetrated by sharp objects.

Click to expand...

Yep ... another reason for a thin(ish) timber skin.

Are you making the whole brood box in this ?? I'm very new to beekeeping and see on here there is a large feeling about insulating !!

Paulf said:

Are you making the whole brood box in this ?? I'm very new to beekeeping and see on here there is a large feeling about insulating !!

Click to expand...

My existing hive is a 14 x 12 Long Hive (similar to a Dartington). It's timber, double walled and HD Polystyrene insulation between the inner and outer timber skins. It's working really well for me but the only disadvantage is that it is incredibly heavy. It's in the garden and may not need to move but I want my next hive to be much lighter and able to be moved if I need to.

Hence, yes, it is the whole hive that I am thinking of making from 50mm Kingspan with a skin of either thin ply or Sterling board.

DerekM has some very novel hives that are metal skinned with PIR insulation.

And there are a few of us on here who have a real bee in our bonnets about insulation ... winter and summer.

I just make TBHs of light wood and cover them with 25 to 35mm insulation on the outside: sometimes twice..I just like to be able to move my hives and lift them on my own without a hernia, or a collapsed disk...

KTBH have a problem of increased top surface area. You need to add even more insulation to compensate. think 75mm

also it looks like it affords good woodpecker protection.

Might give this a try. Can't afford another hive but do have a good supply of Kingspan. How would you adapt to Sita wooden super on a Kingspan brood.

Paulf said:

Might give this a try. Can't afford another hive but do have a good supply of Kingspan. How would you adapt to Sita wooden super on a Kingspan brood.

Click to expand...

please explain what you want to do in a bit more detail

I have one hive and a nuc. I think the nuc will need hive soon. Seems there is an opinion that you may be able to build hives with Kingspan. I can't afford another hive but can get hold of free Kingspan. Could build a brood out of this But how would you be able to put wooden supers on it.

Paulf said:

I have one hive and a nuc. I think the nuc will need hive soon. Seems there is an opinion that you may be able to build hives with Kingspan. I can't afford another hive but can get hold of free Kingspan. Could build a brood out of this But how would you be able to put wooden supers on it.

Click to expand...

The only problem as far as I can see is that your kingspan brood box is going to have thicker walls than timber the timber supers. So .... why not go all the way and make some supers out of kingspan as well. You would probably need to surface the cut edges of the Kingspan with something to stop them crumbling and provide a mating surface for the brood box to sit on the floor and between the BB and the super - aluminium tape would do it but I would be more inclined to use some thin timber or plywood stuck or taped on with alumnium tape .

If you have a source of free kingspan then it's worth a bit of experimentation. The thermal properties of the hive would be excellent - if you made a deep lid like DerekM then it would be even better ... just great for over wintering a colony.

It'll get DerekM's seal of approval I would think. Wish I was a bit nearer - I'd come and play one Sunday !

I have two of Derek's hives and they are the mutts kahoona's. I will be covering my wooden nationals with his idea above too.

Just got to find a way to cut the KS. B&Q can be such bore's at times....

Paulf said:

I have one hive and a nuc. I think the nuc will need hive soon. Seems there is an opinion that you may be able to build hives with Kingspan. I can't afford another hive but can get hold of free Kingspan. Could build a brood out of this But how would you be able to put wooden supers on it.

Click to expand...

They will fit but Putting wooden supers on would be very counter productive. The heat losses are biased to the top. Putting wooden supers on top would be like putting them back in a wooden hive as you would lose about the same amount of heat as a fully wooden hive.
With my PIR hives we use PIR supers exclusively in winter and spring but in summer We use a mixture of my own supers and bought in poly supers as I run out of time to make lots of them . But I still try to have PIR supers at the top

Hachi said:

I have two of Derek's hives and they are the mutts kahoona's. I will be covering my wooden nationals with his idea above too.

Just got to find a way to cut the KS. B&Q can be such bore's at times....

Click to expand...

Bread knife and a straight edge

Or a saw.

Dead easy.

Dusty

Defiantly use a saw very easy. So are we saying make the whole hive except the floor out of ks. How cheap would that be! Pence on comparison.

Would we leave top vents or not. ?

No reason why you can't make the floor out of kingspan.