Alex Derrick of Spicers Hollow Native Bees (pictured) built this hot box which we’ll be doing some temperature tests on. The box has clear perspex on top and sides, a closed in back and base with an open front.
The idea is to warm the box and shield the hive from cold winter winds and see if we can detect any change. This may help a weak colony over winter during the day and also load up the box with a bit more heat to slow the cooling over night. We should be able to compare this to other boxes and see some temperature differences in the charts.
Possible negative effects? Of course we don’t want to cook the bees so we have to be wary of that. The open front seems to allow air flow and heat release so it’s not creating too much heat, more so just warming. The open front also stops any condensation.
There might be noticeable differences straight away but it would take monitoring over a long time to see if it has any impact on colony strength or health.
Chart below: Middle section shows the Hot Box with an open front area. After that I closed in the front with some panels. It’s not air tight but would slow heat loss. You can see in the third part of the chart It’s adding a bit of heat without being too risky so It seems to achieve it’s objective. You could probably have many different variations of the hot box design.
