Overwintering losses

[NigelP]

I do similar as it gives them room to store any surplus feed in autumn. It also saves me storing 20 or so supers in my already overfilled bee shed.
Are people still overwintering on open mesh floors?
For years now I have closed mine off with poly inserts for the winter. or put them on solid wooden floors.
It really helps keep store usage down. I've only had to feed one colony this winter. Mind it was a big colony that kept making bees well into late November and scoffed over 15 litres of thick syrup.
MInd, all my hives are poly so they really are snug and warm.

[AndrewLD]

Are people still overwintering on open mesh floors?
For years now I have closed mine off with poly inserts for the winter. or put them on solid wooden floors.
It really helps keep store usage down.
MInd, all my hives are poly so they really are snug and warm.

That's a very good point about OMF's and I note the fashionable Potts Snuggle board sold by Thorne that is really a fashion trend back to solid floors? I am worried about ventilation in my wet garden, that has been especially bad this year. I left Vita Europe Apishield Floors on a year or so ago (can't remember now) and was horrified at the mouldy useless frames of stores I subsequently burnt. Plus the wisdom is that it is damp that kills bees not cold??????????
As for poly-hives I don't how you sterilise them. They just don't look as aesthetically acceptable in the garden IMO.
However, as even my motorbike has acquired green mould outside this winter and an early job is to swop boxes out so I can scrub off the mould (the one's that are not WRC) and danish Oil them - you might just have a point (there doesn't seem to be an emoji for grudgingly accepting that someone might just have a point)

[NigelP]

Very easy to sterilize, you spray them with dilute bleach, leave for a few minutes and wash off...far simpler and quicker than torching wooden hive parts.
I find many of the "quaint" ideas of parochial beekeeping that I was taught simply wrong. As a biologist I do what I think is best for the bees, not for the aesthetic appeal of how hives in my garden look. Although I love the yellow and blue Abelo hives, they create a nice splash of colour to brighten up my garden during a long dreary winter.
For an insect that heat regulates its environment is it a good idea to overwinter them in drafty cold thermally inefficient hives? They survive (usually)....but do they come out of winter thriving?
Interestingly in Poly hives on solid floors I've seen very little mould on frames and if you think you have a damp garden...we are on Jurassic clay about 1ft under the surface.

[AdamD]

I am still a mostly wooden hive beekeeper at the moment. Large colonies might go into winter on double brood. Others will have a super underneath known as nadiring. A smaller colony might be stretched into a single brood box and some might remain in 8 frame wood or poly boxes or 6 or 5 frame wooden ones.... All have mesh floors and insulation on top, which seems to work for me. In preparation for winter, where I can, I will use dummy boards in full sized hives and push them against the inner side-walls which doubles the thickness of them to improve insulation a little bit. WBC's have a slab of insulation on top of the brood box.
I had an early Paynes poly hive but sold it. I also have a couple of Paradise brood boxes which are good for overwintering - that's all I use them for and I should sell them really as the differnt boxes just add to complexity.
I have not seen any mould issues apart from 5 frame nucs where there was harldy any ventillation from the bottom as they had just a 2" hold in the floor covered in mesh.

After deciding that the Paynes and Paradise poly hives are not for me, I have stuck to wooden ones. By (nearly) all acounts Abelo could be the one to go for at some time. BUT blue and yellow would be a no no in the garden as I have already been out-voted on that one!

[Chrisbarlow]

After deciding that the Paynes and Paradise poly hives are not for me, I have stuck to wooden ones. By (nearly) all acounts Abelo could be the one to go for at some time. BUT blue and yellow would be a no no in the garden as I have already been out-voted on that one!

I have a blue and yellow one. its an interesting site.

I have some green ones, which he now sells. I spoke to some one and he now appears to be doing all colours now. The next ones I get will be unpainted and I will paint them up myself.

[AndrewLD]

Others will have a super underneath known as nadiring.

BUT blue and yellow would be a no no in the garden as I have already been out-voted on that one!

I am aware that English is a living language and meanings change but to call an super placed underneath a brood box "nadiring" is incorrect as it is not the lowest point nor are we astronomers and the noun nadir means something else. Does anyone know who came up with this abuse?

Clearly you have been outvoted by a person of taste If I stuck one of those in my garden I think I'd end up sleeping in the shed until it had gone. Unless of course your apiary is on the coast with a sea view, in which case the situation is rather different and you might get an award for promoting safety at sea.

[Chrisbarlow]

I cannot answer your question however I do seem to remember reading online a bee book from the 1800's which refered to nadiring.

If I get a chance I'll do some searching later

[NigelP]

If I stuck one of those in my garden I think I'd end up sleeping in the shed until it had gone. Unless of course your apiary is on the coast with a sea view, in which case the situation is rather different and you might get an award for promoting safety at sea.

You can buy them unpainted and do your own preferred colour scheme...
In our long dreary Yorkshire winters a splash of col,our is most welcome....Abelo Beehives, Mahonia, Winter Jasmine, dogwoods etc etc

[thewoodgatherer]

I am still a mostly wooden hive beekeeper at the moment. Large colonies might go into winter on double brood. Others will have a super underneath known as nadiring. A smaller colony might be stretched into a single brood box and some might remain in 8 frame wood or poly boxes or 6 or 5 frame wooden ones.... All have mesh floors and insulation on top, which seems to work for me. In preparation for winter, where I can, I will use dummy boards in full sized hives and push them against the inner side-walls which doubles the thickness of them to improve insulation a little bit. WBC's have a slab of insulation on top of the brood box.
I had an early Paynes poly hive but sold it. I also have a couple of Paradise brood boxes which are good for overwintering - that's all I use them for and I should sell them really as the differnt boxes just add to complexity.
I have not seen any mould issues apart from 5 frame nucs where there was harldy any ventillation from the bottom as they had just a 2" hold in the floor covered in mesh.

After deciding that the Paynes and Paradise poly hives are not for me, I have stuck to wooden ones. By (nearly) all acounts Abelo could be the one to go for at some time. BUT blue and yellow would be a no no in the garden as I have already been out-voted on that one!

I run my 6 on OMF shutting them down with custom made boards with 3 inch holes when the weather is particularly cold and windy. Few years back I noticed our local association had a number of mouldy frames on their solid floor wood hives which I don't see. I'm thinking the problem might be reduced entrance which they also use along with solid floor meaning very limited ventilation.

[Patrick]

Sure you already know but Nadiring dates from the skeppists who sometimes added another set of coils below the skep to accommodate larger colonies.

Skeps were not a standard size and presumably the bigger the colony the more the honey. I have made a few straw skeps but have yet to try keeping a colony of bees in one, for practical bee management reasons.