Anyone in the northeast use quilt boxes & cedar shavings for winter ??

Frgrasso · October 18, 2014, 03:53:50 PM

I seen this idea on utube , were you would use a empty
Honey super & staple screen or canvas to the bottom
Then add cedar wood shavings for the winter
Anyone in the northeast do this ? And what is the
Exact method you use ?

rookie2531 · October 18, 2014, 04:25:18 PM

I am new this year and I'm using them. I converted what I was using for summer vents into quilts. I first saw the idea on honey bee suite. Com. I think her name is rusty, has a lot of good info. I used screen and an old cotton shirt, with cedar chips. I also put foam under the tele. Cover and I'm going to wrap with tar paper. It might be overkill here, but I feel better safe than sorry. I put them right on top my inner cover and have 3/4"x 3/4" scrap wood around the hole to keep the shirt material laying right on the hole as the girls started to propalise the fabric as I noticed it did lay right on the hole. I have a notch in the inner cover as well for top entrance. I will reduce the opening down to 1/2" x 3/8"

Right now they have 2 full medium supers, but if they get light, I will use the mount. Camp sugar feeding method and put a shim in between the super and inner cover.

Frgrasso · October 18, 2014, 05:39:17 PM

So your using your inner cover & just
Covering the vent hole with screen
Then adding your box filled with ceder
Chips then your outer cover ?
Iam trying to figure out the best way
To do this or the proper way
Also are you adding winter patties or
Candy boards ?

Psparr · October 18, 2014, 08:52:24 PM

My first winter last year with one hive. I took a medium and stapled a cotton t- shirt about 3/4" up from the bottom of the super. That gave me room to place sugar on the hive. I drilled a 5/8" hole near the bottom for a top entrance. I filled it with wood shavings and straw. I placed it on the hive and the inner cover on top of that. I did a late winter inspection, when I pulled the inner cover off water literally came off in sheets. The bottom of the t-shirt was dry.

All I can say is they made it through the winter. And our winter was pretty brutal.

rookie2531 · October 18, 2014, 09:23:55 PM

I I did what psparr did, except I stapled the shirt on the outside and i should of just layed it on the screen on the inside. It is just to keep the little bits from falling through the screen. The only thing different is he put his inner cover on top and mine is under the quilt. The scrap pieces of wood are just there to lift the shirt up off the hole.(no screen on inner cover hole). If the girls want they can crawl up there and crawl all over the bottom of the quilt. Google search winter quilt and you should find some more,how toos.

Frgrasso · October 18, 2014, 10:03:56 PM

Iam definitely going to do this
Do I need to use cloth ? Or can
I just use screen & then the shavings ?

CBT · October 18, 2014, 11:27:49 PM

What would think about a 2 inch shim with screen on the inside filled with shavings to obsorb moisture in the hive as it rises. Then put on top as normal.

jayj200 · October 19, 2014, 09:14:05 AM

better use metal screen cause they chew up fiberglass

Nyleve · October 19, 2014, 10:23:12 AM

What I've done is to place an empty super on top of the inner cover (one opening closed, the other one left open but with screening over it to prevent bees coming up). Stuffed a bunch of fibergalss batts into a pillowcase and gently stuffed this into the super, leaving some air space at the bottom for condensation). Outer cover on top. This makes it easy to remove the insulation when it comes time to start feeding in the spring. There's a small notch cut into the edge of the inner cover that serves as an upper entrance, which I leave open all winter to allow air flow. Wrap the whole business up and I'm done. This has worked well for several years. Fingers crossed for upcoming winter. I'm in central Ontario, so always a dodgy business.

greenbtree · October 19, 2014, 02:42:12 PM

Last winter I made up hive quilts by using 1 by 4s, and then stapling 1/8 inch hardware cloth (screen) to the bottom. I also had a spacer made with scrap 2 by 2. I used pine shavings sold for horse bedding. Spacer went on top of hive bodies, then hive quilt, then a piece of 1" construction foam board,then telescoping cover. Small hole in front of spacer for top entrance. Didn't use inner covers. Tar paper stapled on hive starting on spacer so I could remove quilt box to check sugar supply. With the 1/8" hardware cloth, I didn't have any issues with bees getting into the shavings, or significant shaving bits filtering down. I used the same set up minus the quilt box the winter before. I still lost smaller hives in last years brutal winter, but I had a lot of robbing issues in the fall. I felt bad about my losses, until I found out that I had done much better than the average for the year in Iowa. I do think the quilt boxes helped, it did keep the hives drier. As always though, YMMV.

JC

rookie2531 · October 21, 2014, 09:27:43 PM

I think I'll change my setup like that greenbtree.

tjc1 · November 10, 2014, 09:21:02 PM

Can't remember where I got this, but it has worked great for me:
- 2" shim on top of hive for mountain camp sugar
- inner cover on top of that, turned so bees (and moisture) can exit through the vent/entrance from the top of the hive
- hole in the center of the inner cover closed with a piece of flashing taped over it
- empty super on top of the inner cover
- a bat of fiberglass cut to fit the super snugly, and pushed down so that the paper side is against the inner cover (no airspace under or around the insulation)
- telescoping cover on top

This way the inner cover stays very warm (open in winter and put your hand under the insulation -it's warm!), so water can never condense on it to drip on the bees. No moisture enters the insulated super, so it doesn't get wet up there. All moisture exits through the top vent/entrance (of course, the sugar also absorbs moisture). In the spring, you can see that the only place in the hive where there was moisture/condensation is around the sides of the hive, where the hive was coldest. From there it can run down the sides to the bottom without bothering the bees.

jayj200 · November 11, 2014, 09:42:43 AM

Quote from: Frgrasso on October 18, 2014, 10:03:56 PM
Iam definitely going to do this
Do I need to use cloth ? Or can
I just use screen & then the shavings ?

as the chips absorb moisture at what point do they exceed its max retention of moisture. what happens then?
bet it is more than just overload.
what about a cotton wick to the outside?

derekm · November 11, 2014, 11:01:21 AM

Quote from: jayj200 on November 11, 2014, 09:42:43 AM
Quote from: Frgrasso on October 18, 2014, 10:03:56 PM
Iam definitely going to do this
Do I need to use cloth ? Or can
I just use screen & then the shavings ?

as the chips absorb moisture at what point do they exceed its max retention of moisture. what happens then?
bet it is more than just overload.
what about a cotton wick to the outside?

I have done measurements of the thermal losses through a pillow case filled with woodshavings and some saw dust. This was packed carefully into the top of Warre hiv, above a hessian (sack cloth) cover.
The thicknesswas about 4" (100mm). The performance was comparable to 30mm - 40mm of polystyrene.