Comments on: How to overwinter an Apidea http://beespoke.info/2014/10/16/how-to-overwinter-an-apidea/ Information For Humans Beeing Fri, 15 Jul 2016 17:12:54 +0000 hourly 1 By: Gimlet http://beespoke.info/2014/10/16/how-to-overwinter-an-apidea/#comment-1672 Fri, 15 Jul 2016 17:12:54 +0000 http://beespoke.info/?p=2370#comment-1672 In reply to Marnix.

That’s interesting!
I think if they make it through winter at all it’s great. After all, they are a very small colony and if there is a bit of damp it sort of goes with the territory. However if you can eliminate it, it’s better.
It must be due to condensation so Insulation and ventilation are the key.
If you had the Apidea inside a cedar hive that should have insulated it from the worst of the cold and the condensaton might have been worse if you hadn’t done that. I think your winters are much colder than ours!
You could try leaving the ventilation panel open but they do tend to propolise it.
Also, make sure the Apidea slopes slightly towards the front so if any moisture does gather, it can run out of the front and not gather at the back.

]]> By: Marnix http://beespoke.info/2014/10/16/how-to-overwinter-an-apidea/#comment-1671 Fri, 15 Jul 2016 14:23:25 +0000 http://beespoke.info/?p=2370#comment-1671 I followed your advice and succesfully overwintered an apidea. Colony and queen survived, but not the way I liked. However, moisture was a problem, i mean that over time the level of moisture in the apidea increased. By the end of winter, the frames in the top were full of fungus. How to prevent this from happening?

Greetings from the Netherlands

P.S. i placed the apidea (two boxes) in a spare wooden beehive (6-frame, red cedar) with open bottom for ventilation.

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