Beehouse in the winter

Beehouse protects hives from bad weather. Special insulation is not really needed. More then winter freezing you might have to thing about summer overheating. Tree shadow could work well or you have to provide good ventilation, openings and perhaps some insulation of the roof to reduce heating of the inner air. That could help over the winter as well but is not necessary. Most important is to fill all gaps between the hives to reduce heat loss between the hives due to wind flow. You can put some insulation at the side of hives on the left and right margin of the beehouse. Inside of the hive is enough 2cm of polyurethane foam or similar material. Some are using only newspaper sheets, like 8 layers is enough. In case of using isolation foam, you can even open ventilation openings at the back door of the hive. In case of rodents access inside of the bee house that could mean special invitation inside of the hive. In such case rather keep openings closed and take care during warming up of the weather to dry insulation or even exchange with dry one.

My beehouse during winter 2005