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To: Oliviaforever
There are some insulated hives, but they are more expensive than wooden hives which you can build at home.

I tried the insulated styrofoam hives for several years and never once had a hive survive the winter. We finally gave away or burned every bit of styrofoam hive and plastic foundation and went back to wood hives, all wax / wired foundation frames. Much better success at overwintering and much faster buildup. Insulated hive bodies also don't breathe at all, and we ran into problems with moisture build-up and mold with some of them. The other major problem was that the ants love the insulation and every single hive ended up holding one or more ant colonies.

76 posted on 04/18/2014 5:33:41 AM PDT by FateAmenableToChange
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To: FateAmenableToChange

I am not in a climate where I would consider styrofoam hives, but their inability to breathe would concern me greatly.


77 posted on 04/18/2014 11:54:51 AM PDT by Oliviaforever
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