When my temperatures were consistently between 13 Celsius /55.4 Fahrenheit to 10C/50F I decided to insulate my beehives using bee cozies.
I winterize my beehives for the following reasons:
- To stop high wind gusts blowing into the hives
- I use black plastic bee cozies to increase solar gain that will help my honeybees maintain the correct temperature for brooding. Honeybees require their brood nest to be kept at 33C/ 91.4F
- I seal and insulate the feeder shims to prevent any condensation freezing to the bottom of the feeder shim and later dripping down as cold water droplets into the bee cluster
Not all beekeepers winterize their hives. It all depends on your local weather.
I garden in Nova Scotia/Mi’kma’ki, Canada. Gardening Zone 6b/ USA Zone 5b. In my local area, our winter temperatures on average, don’t get below -5C / 23F. In the winter months, we get high winds that average about 24 kilometres per hour/ 15 miles per hour in January. Our winds can reach 80km per hour/ 49 miles per hour in the winter months
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