Follower Boards

Through the year I provide a little insulation to the bees in the form of follower boards at the front and the back of the hive. Their job is to provide a bit of insulation for the outer face of the frames facing them. Without them in place when you push the frames together in the middle of the hive you'd also have a large gap at either end and the queen might decide those areas are a little chilly for her royal sensibilities and decide not to lay eggs on the outer two faces of the brood frames.

Follower Board in Brood Box

These are just thin pieces of plywood cut to more or less the shape of a brood frame and dropped one at either end of the rows of frames.

Follower Board. You could train a monkey to make these.

The board reduces what would be a large gap at either end of the frames to a bee space on the side of the frames, and creates a seperate air gap between the board and the hive wall. Without the boards in place the bees produce burr comb in the gaps at either end of the frames but with them in place whilst they still have access to the gap behind the boards they seem to consider it to be outside of the hive proper and don't make any comb -just like the space above a crownboard.

Follower Boards in use

I suppose they're a little like secondary double glazing, except you can't see through them, they're in a beehive and nobody knocks on your door trying to sell you them.