an experiment

[user 6228]

Current hypothesis:Bees in winter heat their hives around 8pm to ripen moved or new stores....
Temperature is going up and fanning is heard from the hives

 

[pargyle]

Current hypothesis:Bees in winter heat their hives around 8pm to ripen moved or new stores....
Temperature is going up and fanning is heard from the hives

I'm not in your league of sophistication but I've been checking my hive sensor at 6.00pm when I get home from work and again at 10.00pm ... there's been a 3 degree rise in the hive temp between 6pm and 10.00pm for the the last few days ... whilst the outside temperature has, generally, reduced by the same amount. The 10.00pm temp seems to prevail until the following morning....

It has to be something to do with the colony ripening stores but the only reason I can think of for this activity taking place overnight is that, generally, all the foraging bees would be in the hive overnight so, presumably, a bigger workforce to fan and warm and les space to heat with all the colony in the hive ?

 

[user 6228]

I'm not in your league of sophistication but I've been checking my hive sensor at 6.00pm when I get home from work and again at 10.00pm ... there's been a 3 degree rise in the hive temp between 6pm and 10.00pm for the the last few days ... whilst the outside temperature has, generally, reduced by the same amount. The 10.00pm temp seems to prevail until the following morning....

It has to be something to do with the colony ripening stores but the only reason I can think of for this activity taking place overnight is that, generally, all the foraging bees would be in the hive overnight so, presumably, a bigger workforce to fan and warm and les space to heat with all the colony in the hive ?

this hive has a 10c rise, 21c during the day 31c now ... ambient temperatures havent moved much....
night time usually has a lower temperatures ... just the thing if you are running and controlling a condensing heat recovery system. To dehumidify efficiently you need a temperature difference.

 

[Tom Bick]

Current hypothesis:Bees in winter heat their hives around 8pm to ripen moved or new stores....
Temperature is going up and fanning is heard from the hives

Do you have a microphone in the hive or do you hear this fanning when stood next to the hive?

If the latter then this is odd and perhaps all is not right I would have expected this behaviour to be reported many times and be general knowledge.

 

[pargyle]

this hive has a 10c rise, 21c during the day 31c now ... ambient temperatures havent moved much....
night time usually has a lower temperatures ... just the thing if you are running and controlling a condensing heat recovery system. To dehumidify efficiently you need a temperature difference.

So ... forgive my lack of understanding ... is what you are saying that they prefer to dehumidify overnight as there is a bigger temperature gradient between the inside and outside of the hive at night as the exterior night time temperatures are (generlly) lower ? And this aids the process of ripening ?

I can see that is highly possible .. my hive has an open mesh floor (albeit protected from draughts by a tray) but your hives have solid floors so it is possible that the excessive fanning you are hearing (which I'm not hearing in my hive) is them working to move the excess moisture out from the bottom entrance ?

I have a top entrance with a periscope and a fairly long tunnel (45mm) entrance, the periscope door is perspex and I see condensation on the inside in the mornings so there is obviously some heat and moisture escaping or at least being forced into the periscope.

All very thought provoking !

 

[user 6228]

Do you have a microphone in the hive or do you hear this fanning when stood next to the hive?

If the latter then this is odd and perhaps all is not right I would have expected this behaviour to be reported many times and be general knowledge.

Remember this is a tall insulated hive. Behaviour in winter would be suppressed by tight clustering in conventional hives. In summer you won't see the temperature swing in a crowded squat hive.
and Everyone reports fanning in the evening in summer/spring.

 

[user 6228]

So ... forgive my lack of understanding ... is what you are saying that they prefer to dehumidify overnight as there is a bigger temperature gradient between the inside and outside of the hive at night as the exterior night time temperatures are (generlly) lower ? And this aids the process of ripening ?

I can see that is highly possible .. my hive has an open mesh floor (albeit protected from draughts by a tray) but your hives have solid floors so it is possible that the excessive fanning you are hearing (which I'm not hearing in my hive) is them working to move the excess moisture out from the bottom entrance ?

I have a top entrance with a periscope and a fairly long tunnel (45mm) entrance, the periscope door is perspex and I see condensation on the inside in the mornings so there is obviously some heat and moisture escaping or at least being forced into the periscope.

All very thought provoking !

In atall insulated hive the bees don't need to use external air, they use the top bottom temp difference.

 

[user 6228]

What happened ?
This small cast was messed bout something rotten because of the sensors failing around september. They were rehoused yet again,in replacement boxes with a better sensors installation. Through the winter from the sensors, we could tell the colony was dwindling to less than 1/2 a nuc!!! and so we had written them off. However the temperatures showed the diminished colony was still there and so we continued to feed them fondant via a plastic crown board made from a overhead project slide.
Today we opened them up for the first time since September 2013. They are still alive and still small. We found evidence that they had had a battle with wax moth larvae and won out and are now about 2 frames of brood and increasing.

 

[Tom Bick]

What have they done with the combs? Are they unaltered or have the bees rebuilt some of them?

 

[user 6228]

What have they done with the combs? Are they unaltered or have the bees rebuilt some of them?

just trimmed up thats all.