Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: Jen on November 04, 2020, 12:13:33 am
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What do you think of using large black garbage bags to wrap around the hive for warmth, the sun would warm up the black plastic?
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It ought to help. Up north, like Montana, it is standard practice to wrap them in tarpaper. Just wrap 'em in and staple it to the hive. :)
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Jen, I just did a quick search on YouTube and there are dozens of vids with wrapping ideas for winter.
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Thanks Neil :) I don't have to wrap my hives, but 40 minutes down the road it can snow up to 3 feet. Now snow is a good insulator for hives. I'm more concerned about the wind... can black plastic work as a wind break?
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That's hard for me to answer. In this part of the country we don't wrap our hives with anything. Instead we provide windbreaks. A line of trees between the hives and the north wind work well. I do that. In the back yard I put up tarps suspended between T bars. I know others that use T bars and stand up wood pallets. Some use hay bales or snow fencing. I think black plastic would work and it would be inexpensive. I don't know about your area, but you may have bees thinking that is warmer than it is. Cleansing flights could be fatal when the bees come out and end up face down in the snow. We see that here even without wrapping the hives. I would make sure I had adequate ventilation so condensation can escape.
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for wind you'd be better off with roofing felt. wrap the hive & staple it.
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I live on an island in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and I know beekeepers who don't here who don't use the standard black roofing felt wrap, but instead use plastic black tarp tightly wrapped to their hives, and have done well with that. Personally, I'm switching to painting my hives black and that's it, though my hive are well sheltered, no cold heavy winds pounding on them all winter. Here's what I've written about it so far:
https://mudsongs.org/black-hives/