$198.00
Winterize your bee hive with the Beehive Cozy Cover, the perfect solution to winter colony survival. The Beehive Cozy Cover is constructed from durable, double weave, 100% watertight, breathable cotton canvas. There are four insulation pockets that securely hold 100% natural wool batts.
You have put time, money, energy and love into your bees, now lets get them through the winter. It's so devastating to have a healthy, productive hive going into the fall, only to lose it all because of cold winter temperatures.
Corwin at BackYardHive is passionate about protecting the bees in the winter from sudden temperature drops and he has put a huge amount of energy into understanding the colony deaths occurring across the US during this season. After studying hives for multiple winter seasons, we designed the ideal insulating solution, the Beehive Cozy Cover ! It is the ultimate protection for overwintering your bees. The only thing you could do better is to keep your bees in a big tree.
* 100 % natural materials for the bees
* Watertight, Breathable, UV resistant Cotton Canvas
* Natural Wool from New Zealand is breathable and superior R values
* Wool inherently manages moisture and eliminates condensation
* Four insulation pockets that securely hold insulation
* Wrap around wind and draft flaps
* The front has a sewn in drip edge
* Bungees included for a secure fit to your hive
* Each Cozy has hand silk screened design by Corwin Bell
* Made in Colorado
* See wool layer R value options below
* Quick and Easy to install
* Insulates the Golden Mean, Cathedral Hive, Original BackYardHive, AND most popular top bar hive designs - If you have a side entrance or longer than 42" top bar hive email us for fitting details
* Insulates upper boxes of Langstroth Hives
* Insulates beethinking hive with hinged roof removed
Cozy Cover fits Langstroth, Warre, Cathedral and Top Bar Beehives!
The Cozy Cover does not need to envelope the entire hive to keep your bees warm over the winter. It has been designed to insulate the hive where the brood nest and the cluster of bees are overwintering. In a langstroth hive the bees will migrate to the top of the hive because warm air rises, so the cozy cover will be fitted to insulate this top section. In a long topbar hive, the bees should be situated towards the front of the hive, so the cozy cover will only need to be fitted to insulate this front section.
More details of our canvas fabric and why we use wool below
Bees have lived in well-insulated natural cavities for thousands of years.
We have created an insulating solution that is as close as possible to what the bees experience in nature when living inside a hollow of a tree.
After seeing the massive losses over the last several winters all over the country we were determined to find a solution and give bees a chance to make it over the winter. In the process of trying to understand what was happening and with many days of research, talking to experts about insulation, breath-ability, humidity and condensation, we discovered some very important concepts about weatherization. After several prototypes, testing and then more prototypes, we now have in production a very effective winterizing solution to protect your bees, the “Beehive Cozy Cover”. In creating the Cozy Cover we sought to understand the bees in context to their original nest enclosure, the tree.
What is important is that you act on behalf of your bees now.
If you only read one thing this fall about overwintering your bees, this article should be it. Winterizing Beehives Research article. We have put a huge amount of energy into understanding what happened to thousands of beehives across the US over the past several winters and we have come up with a solution.
What I'm saying is “act now”, understand the problem and use this solution so your bees make it. The whole backyard hive movement to help the bees is in jeopardy of utterly failing in just a few years if we realize too late what is happening and don't have a tested solution. Sorry to sound so alarmist, but the climate events sometimes termed a Polar Vortex or Flash Freezes are killing bee colonies and we can do something about it.
Give Your Bees a Warm Hug
Cozy them up this winter
Wool Options:
1 layer = R7.5 = Zone 8
2 layers = R15 = Zone 7
3 layers = R22 = Zone 5-6
4 layers = R29 = Zone 3-4
Use wool in addition to our Insulation Panels - Adding a Cozy Cover with 2 layers of wool to your panels will equal R20.
We will fill your Cozy Cover with as many layers of wool you need for your hives geographic location. Each layer is 2 inches thick and the batts of wool can be stacked according to your hives needs.
Will more wool make your hive too hot?
Nope! Insulation only retains heat and the bees are in complete control of how they heat the hive nest, they just don't have to work so hard if the heat they generate isn't transferring to the outside.
The Beehive Cozy Cover is placed over the inner lid of your top bar hive, Langstroth hive or Warre' or under the roof of your Cathedral Hive. The four wind flaps are bungied to keep the front and back pillows snug against the hive while also providing a superior wind protection.
The wind flaps fold around the front side of the hive and are bungied across the side of the hive and connected to the rear wind flaps. The side insulated pockets fold down along the sides and are connected to each other under the hive with four bungies creating a secure fit along the hive body. Now the front, back, sides and top of your hive have an insulating pillow to keep the bees safe from sudden drops in temperature.
The Cozy Cover will securely protect two deeps/mediums going into winter
We worked with Davis Tents in Denver, CO to source the best, premium 100% canvas fabric, the
same that they use to make their durable handcrafted tents for over 50 years.
Why did we choose cotton? Because of breathability. The double fill canvas expands when it comes in contact with water, this action repels the rain and snow.
The Beehive Cozy Cover canvas has a coating that protects it from rain, snow, and ultra-violet (UV) light from the sun. It also resists mildew.
Breathability is essential because it eliminates condensation. The quality weave allows the moisture to escape through the cover keeping the bees warm and dry. Some humidity in the hive is important, but having a hive wrapped in plastic or a non breathable cover causes to much moisture to collect in the hive.
These images shot with an inferred camera show the heat signatures of hives after a snow and a couple of very cold days.
The hive on the left is covered with a Cozy Cover. You can see the cold snow on the top and the smooth color of a breathable surface. It also shows the superior retention of warmth from the wool insulation.
The hive in the middle is wrapped in plastic and R19. Here you can see it loosing a lot of heat around the bottom of the hive where the insulation is not secure and also the cold blue blotches where moisture has been trapped in the plastic and has condensed, causing cold spots.
Finally the hive on the right is just wrapped over the top with R30 insulation in a plastic bag. It demonstrates a lot of heat escaping around the hive, especially at the front of the hive.
Wool Manages Moisture
Wool fibers inherently manage moisture, absorbing and releasing it against 65% relative humidity. This allows for condensation to be minimized as wool generates heat from energy, thus making it warm when wet. Equally important, wool is a keratin and therefore will not support the growth of mold. These characteristics, on their own, make wool an outperformer as an insulator; on a relative basis it stands in a league of its own. Choose the Wool option for your Cozy Cover to insualte your bees.
We worked with Andrew Legge, owner of Havlock Wool to find the best of natures insulation capabilities.
One board of ridged 1 1/2 inch foam has an R value of 7.5, One layer of Wool has an R value also of 7.5. Wool allows moisture to escape, where Foam insulation is typically considered the vapor barrier.
They just walk out on the landing board and launch out into the sky! The Bee Hive Cozy Cover does not close off the entrance when properly installed. The sewn in drip edge and the wind flaps help protect from high winds, but leave ample space for the bees to come and go.
No more plastic bags that do not breathe creating condensation.
No more dealing with itchy fiberglass. Most conventional insulation mediums are emitting or ‘off-gassing’ harmful chemicals.
No more strapping and taping.
No more soggy fiberglass insulation.
No more having to store bags of insulation in your garage.
The economic justification is simple if you paid $120-150 for a package of bees, you want to insure they make it through the winter, so you don't have to buy another package next spring. Your investment will pay off each spring as you minimize your losses.
Using all natural wool is only about $30 more than using fiberglass insulation for the 3 layer option plus you give your bees an all natural protection !
