Keep Healthier Bees

Insulation matters

Honeybees thrive in a thermally superior, more hygienic HiveIQ beehive.

Thermally superior by design

EPS beehives help you keep more productive bees… With more than six times the insulation value of a standard wooden beehive, The HiveIQ beehive provides an environment more akin to living in a large hollow tree with a large thermal protective mass.

The excellent thermal performance of the HiveIQ EPS beehive provides a healthy environment for honeybees all year round. It keeps the colony dry and warm throughout winter and cool, productive and healthy throughout summer.

1.6 inch thick solid EPS hive top and walls prevents heat loss and heat radiating into the hive during hot weather.

Recessed queen excluder enables a perfect seal between the brood box and second box.

The ventilated floor allows the colony to manage airflow, humidity in the hive.

The interlocking design includes the queen excluder to ensure a perfect seal between hive bodies and frames eliminating hot or cold drafts and prevents water entering the hive

The interlocking design between hives ensures a perfect seal between hive bodies, frames eliminating hot or cold drafts and prevents water entering the hive

Improved survival rates

The warm dry conditions inside the HiveIQ beehive dramatically improves overwintering survival rates.

The thermal qualities of our hives also improved survival in extremely hot conditions.

Faster Spring Build-up

The additional warmth provided by the HiveIQ beehive enables a faster build-up of new brood rearing leading to a larger more productive workforce earlier in the season.

The consistent temperature across the brood frames eliminates cold or hot zones enabling the queen to lay right out to the edge (wall) frames of the brood hive.

Increased Honey Production.

An increasing number of professional beekeepers using both timber and EPS hives are reporting significantly higher honey production in their EPS hives.

Many beekeepers report an improvement of 35% more production output and sometimes more.

Improved Hygiene

Honeybees freed up from climate control inside the hive are assigned to other important activities including hive hygiene.

Having more honeybees available to quickly remove debris such as dead bees, the colony becomes healthier and stronger.

Reduction in pests and diseases

Small Hive Beetle is a major challenge that beekeepers face in many regions around the world.

The Small Hive Beetle thrives in high humidity and high temperature environments and quickly overwhelm colonies when the colony loses control of the thermal conditions inside the hive.

A thermally superior hive enables the colony to better manage humidity and temperature. The better insulated the beehive, the less honey and less honeybees are required

Insulation really matters

Keeping warm in winter and cool in summer takes energy (honey) and honeybees (Heater bees) assigned to the task of maintaining the temperature. The better insulated the beehive, the less honey and less honeybees are required.

Honeybees are the masters of climate control in their hives, and they need to be. Maintaining brood temperature at a substantial 93°-97°F (34°-36°C) is critical for honeybee colonies to rear brood and survive and flourish as a colony.

Wild honeybees choose to live in the hollows of large trees and logs because they provide a large protective thermal mass, reducing the amount of energy required to maintain the hive’s climate.

In contrast, most domesticated colonies are housed in fabricated timber hives with a typical wall thickness of less than an inch offering very little insulation against the outside elements.

The insulation is further decreased when the timber becomes waterlogged during damp cold winters leading to the rapid consumption of honey stores, winter clustering, and susceptibility to diseases such as Nosema and Chalk brood.

How do honeybee colonies stay warm in winter?

The honeybee colony’s ability to survive the winter depends on their food stores. Keeping warm takes energy in the form of honey. In winter, the bees cluster around the brood to keep warm. The more thermally efficient the hive, the less honey is consumed for generating heat energy, the bees are required to be heater bees – freeing up the hives resources for other important activities such as foraging, hive hygiene and brood raising.

What is the problem?

For more than 170 years, the standard beehive has been a timber hive, a revolutionary invention by Lorenzo Langstroth in 1851. Since then, the form, function and material technology used are largely unchanged from Langstroth’s original designs.

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