HokkaidoHachi · Hokkaido, JP · Gear · Oct 12, 2026
Insulating under the hive as well as over it — my floors sit on damp ground and I lose one colony every Hokkaido winter
Hokkaido, fourth year, seven colonies. Every winter I put insulation over the crownboard, wrap the boxes, and every spring one hive is dead with mould up the inside walls and soggy frames at the bottom. The dead one is always the same two positions on my stand — the end nearest the treeline, where the ground stays wet and the snow lies latest.
I'm starting to think I've been insulating the wrong surface. The roof is dealt with. The bottom is a solid floor 20 cm off wet ground, on a stand made of concrete blocks, and cold damp air sits under there all winter.
What I'm considering for this year: raise the whole stand to about 40 cm, put a gravel bed under it so water drains instead of pooling, and add a sheet of insulation board under the floor of the two problem hives. Also considering a small slope so meltwater runs away from the entrance rather than into it.
Has anyone actually added insulation UNDER the floor, and did it help or did it just make a cold trap? And for those in deep-snow regions, do you clear snow away from the stand or let it bank up as insulation?
#insulation#hive-stands#damp#hokkaido
▲ 8 votes💬 4 replies✅ Solved
4 replies
AlpineCarnica · Oct 12, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer
Tyrol, 18 years. Drainage and height first, insulation under the floor second — and in that order, because a dry cold floor is far less trouble than a damp insulated one. Your diagnosis of the site is almost certainly right: it's the same two positions every year, which is a site problem, not a hive problem. Gravel, raise it, slope it away.
LindenNora · Oct 12, 2026
Uppsala. I have insulation under the floors on four hives and no difference that I can measure against the four without. What DID make a difference was tilting the floor forward a couple of degrees so condensate runs out of the entrance instead of pooling at the back. Cheap experiment, do that one first.
QuebecBees · Oct 13, 2026
Quebec, and we get real snow. I let it bank against the sides — it's genuinely insulating and the colonies under a drift do well — but I keep the entrance clear of ice. Snow breathes, ice doesn't. HokkaidoHachi, after a thaw-freeze cycle go and check nothing has glazed over the entrance.
HokkaidoHachi · Oct 13, 2026
Gravel arriving Thursday and I'll tilt all seven. It's embarrassing how long I spent thinking about wrapping material while the hives sat in a puddle.