Insulation, venting, real bee life, exits.

[T Beek]

As a logger (veneer and pulp) many years ago I cut down a hollowed out tree now and then.  What couldn't be used for veneer went into the woodstove.

Most 'tree' cutting was done in mid-winter (less destruction to the ecosystem I was led to believe) and piled on landings for pick up throughout the year (as prices fluctuated) primarily because "trees had less moisture" during winter, reducing hauling expenses.

A standing tree in winter (rotten or live) will generally be dryer than the same tree in spring (sap run) or summer (nutrients to leaves and/or more absorbent) making for 'lighter' loads for same volume when compared w/ summer cut wood.  Just my own personal observation.

thomas

[zippelk]

from Seeley and Morse 1976: "The wails of nest cavities were always solid (see 1. Nest "Site, Tree condition) and coated with [waterproof] propolis on their inner surfaces. Figure 7 shows a small area of this propolis coating. In finished nests the propolis layer was thick and completely covered a nest cavity's floor, walls and ceiling to form the propolis envelope drawn in figure 3. The thickness of this layer varied between 0.1 and 2.3 ram, but was generally in the 0.3 to 0.5 mm range. We dissected several unfinished nests and thus observed the intermediate stages in the preparation of nest cavity wails. When combs only partially filled a cavity, the nest cavity's inner surface was solid and smooth with propolis only around the combs. Lower in the cavity, below the level of the combs, a layer of soft, rotten wood coated the cavity walls. This punkwood lining was up to 20 mm thick. Apparently, before bees build combs they scrape the loose, rotten wood off the walls, thereby exposing firm wood which they then coat with propolis."

[rdy-b]

As a logger (veneer and pulp) many years ago I cut down a hollowed out tree now and then.  What couldn't be used for veneer went into the wood-stove.

Most 'tree' cutting was done in mid-winter (less destruction to the ecosystem I was led to believe) and piled on landings for pick up throughout the year (as prices fluctuated) primarily because "trees had less moisture" during winter, reducing hauling expenses.

A standing tree in winter (rotten or live) will generally be dryer than the same tree in spring (sap run) or summer (nutrients to leaves and/or more absorbent) making for 'lighter' loads for same volume when compared w/ summer cut wood.  Just my own personal observation.

thomas

  the tree weighs* less* in the winter--because its* DRYER* ok sounds good-  now that we have established this how can we incorporate  it into beekeeping benefit--sounds like we are advancing into the category of venting through osmosis--say did the part of the tree that contained the bee cavity weigh the same as the rest of the tree or did that part weigh more--??? RDY-B