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Wellington winter, week after week of southerly rain — mesh floors or solid, settle it for me

Six years in, five hives on a ridge in Wellington, and every winter I go back and forth on this. It's mid-winter here, we've had three southerly fronts in a row, everything is saturated, and I've got three hives on mesh floors with the inspection trays in, two on solid floors. The mesh-floor hives feel drier inside — the solid-floor ones both had condensation drips on the underside of the crown board at my last quick lid-lift, and one has a patch of mould on an outer frame. But the mesh hives are lighter on stores, presumably burning more to keep the cluster warm in the wind. NZ conventional wisdom says damp kills bees, not cold, and I mostly believe it. But is the answer mesh with trays in for the storms, mesh wide open, or solid with better top insulation? What's actually worked for people in genuinely wet, windy winters — not continental cold, WET.
#mesh-floor#overwintering#condensation#nz
▲ 8 votes 💬 4 replies
4 replies
BallaratBees · Jul 30, 2026
Victoria here, similar wet-winter story minus your wind. I run mesh with trays IN for winter and the difference-maker was top insulation, not the floor — 50mm foam over the crown board stopped the condensation drips completely. Warm dry ceiling, slightly ventilated floor, cluster in between. Stores burn on my mesh hives dropped once the ceiling was sorted.
NalediBees · Jul 30, 2026
Mpumalanga winters are dry so different problem, but one thing translates: wind. If your ridge site funnels wind under the hives, mesh wide open is a constant draught through the cluster. A windbreak (even a pallet leaned on the stand's windward side) changed my hive-scale weights more than any floor choice.
MendozaMiel · Jul 31, 2026
Mendoza, also mid-winter: solid floors here, but our issue is dry cold. From wet-climate colleagues I trust: the mould on the outer frame is your real warning, not the stores gap. Condensation over the cluster is the killer; condensation on the walls is arguably fine (water source). Fix the ceiling first, as BallaratBees says.
KiwiBeek · Jul 31, 2026
Consensus accepted: floors matter less than I thought, ceilings matter more. Foam going on all five this weekend between fronts, trays staying in until spring, and I'll drag a pallet up for the windward side. Will report hive weights at willow flow.
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