New Beehive Design - 120 R-Value, Twice The Honey

From Bee Love Beekeeping... presented by Mann Lake Eric Bennett

This episode features a beekeeper-engineer’s quest to copy what a honey bee colony does naturally in a hollow tree—and to put that into a production hive.

Alex Gamberoni of Primal Bee, shares how repeated winter losses drove him and his co-founder to model nest shape, airflow, and dew point, ultimately designing the insulated, trapezoidal “Primal Bee” nest that aims to reduce winter losses (reported <10%, sometimes ~5%) and increase honey yields—without changing your honey supers or extractors.

Along the way, we cover forage in the Italian Alps, chestnut honey’s “sweet-then-spicy” flavor, and a delightfully chaotic bee-in-the-Jeep 'Wild & Crazy' beekeeping story.

Beekeeping takeaways abound for every beekeeper, from winter management and feeding density to why nest shape may matter more than insulation thickness for honey bee thermoregulation.

It's all about having fun while we learn about beekeeping and sharing the love of honey bees!

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Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/taiIW_Xpcrk

Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mann Lake! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/

Mann Lake discount code: MLBEELOVE10 for $10 off your first $100 order.

https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/

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https://primalbee.com/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09431-y