Quilt Box Effect on Hive

What is a quilt box? is one of the most common questions we receive. It is essentially a small box with burlap or screen on the bottom, filled with sawdust, cedar shavings or some other organic material. The box sets on top of the topmost box the bees inhabit and is said to "absorb moisture" and "retain the nest scent and heat." But does it?

A customer of ours recently gathered some data on this very subject by using temperature sensors in his identical Langstroth hives. He added a quilt box to one of them, and left the other one untouched. Here are the identical hives:

Here is the quilt box:

Here is the data he gathered:

Note that the temperature fluctuates far less on Hegemone (the hive to which the quilt box was added).

In the next week he plans to add a solid bottom to one of the hives to see what impact it has on the temperature.