Apifoam 10F Hive Insulator

01 · WHAT IT IS AND DOES

Pressed felt, 1200 g/m², 8 mm

It is medium-density pressed felt, 1200 g/m² and 8 mm thick. Its advantage over a reflective sheet or bubble wrap is not more insulation but breathability: the porous texture lets some vapour through instead of sending it back, and that difference shows in damp winters or under a metal roof, where condensed water ends up dripping onto the cluster. It also cushions the day-to-night swings, which punish a colony as much as sustained cold does.

02 · AND WHAT IT IS NOT

Eight millimetres is not an insulation board

Worth saying before you buy, because it is the comparison everyone makes: 8 mm of felt is not the same as a 30 or 40 mm insulation board, and anyone taking it out of the box expecting a rigid panel will find it thin. Its job is a different one — a thermal quilt and moisture management right above the frames. In a hard winter this works alongside a double roof, a reflective cover or external insulation; it does not replace them. With that expectation set, it does its own job well.

03 · WHERE IT GOES

Over the frames, or just under the roof

It rests directly on the frames or on the feeder, and it also works under the crown board or between that and the roof. The 425 × 500 mm is the footprint of a 10-frame Dadant Blatt or Langstroth box: it covers the mouth of the box, not each frame. For nuclei or smaller formats it cuts with scissors without fraying. It is flexible, so it settles without pressing on the top bars, and it takes repeated handling without tearing or shedding fibres.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

What is sold is the single sheet, one per hive — not a pack of several. And an honest note on moisture: the felt reduces condensation and dripping because it lets vapour through, but it will not turn a badly ventilated hive into a dry one; if the problem is ventilation or the site, that is where it has to be solved. It comes out, airs, and goes back the following season without ceremony.