Ventilated hive covers
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mranum
Ventilated hive covers
What's the buzz on the ventilated hive covers that are now around? Is there any truth to the hype of increased production? How about the down side? Your experiences. . .
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cpecka
Vented Covers
I tried with some shallow supers I had. I drilled 8 holes an inch down from and along the top, screened the holes as well as the bottom. took them out to one of my yards and put them on 5 of the 10 colonies there.
Four of the 5 with the vents did make more honey almost a supers worth, but they appeared to be a bit more infested with varroa. I'm not too sure about the corralation between the production and varroa, but the numbers dropped with treatment.
Anyways for me I can see an improvement, but I don't think the improvement is worth the additional cost of equipment nor the extra trip to put on and remove empty vented boxes. I have limited storage assets and need them for supers with honey, or supers without, not the vented boxes.
my 10cents worth.
Four of the 5 with the vents did make more honey almost a supers worth, but they appeared to be a bit more infested with varroa. I'm not too sure about the corralation between the production and varroa, but the numbers dropped with treatment.
Anyways for me I can see an improvement, but I don't think the improvement is worth the additional cost of equipment nor the extra trip to put on and remove empty vented boxes. I have limited storage assets and need them for supers with honey, or supers without, not the vented boxes.
my 10cents worth.
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mranum
Thanks for reply on covers
We're going to try some crude ventilated covers on a yard of packages installed this spring. They're all fairly even strength and should make a good subject. We plan on placing a cover on every other hive so we get as much of a random application as possible.
The covers we made this year are nothing more than a 2" rim with a cleat holding regular aluminum window screen to the bottom. There are eight 1" holes drilled in the rim and the telescoping cover just goes on the top of the thing. Nothing fancy and it won't hold up well at all but it's just a trial. Thought about laying in styrofoam for the winter and just leaving the things in place as we wrap the colonies. Refinments would be in order for something permanent!
Mark
The covers we made this year are nothing more than a 2" rim with a cleat holding regular aluminum window screen to the bottom. There are eight 1" holes drilled in the rim and the telescoping cover just goes on the top of the thing. Nothing fancy and it won't hold up well at all but it's just a trial. Thought about laying in styrofoam for the winter and just leaving the things in place as we wrap the colonies. Refinments would be in order for something permanent!
Mark