Chewed wings?

[Hombre]

I can't say, but it varies. As the temperature drops, the bees begin to cluster and the lower the ambient temperature in the hive, the tighter the cluster becomes.

Within the cluster, the temperature is around 34 degrees C while there is brood, but if the cluster becomes broodless, the cluster temperature can be dropped to nearer 22 degrees C. The outside of the cluster will be significantly lower than the inside, but heat rises and there have been stories of mice making their nests above the centre of the crown board.

One person asked how the mice managed to get in without being challenged by the bees in the cluster. The answer, by being as quiet as a mouse . . . The unlucky ones end up propalised.

 

[kazmcc]

ooh ooh ooh i know this one! averages 35 deg c (i think!)

lol, that's how I feel when I know the answer to a question, the once I've posted it, I cringe waiting for it to be wrong and loads of experienced beeks to come along and correct me and make me feel like I know nothing lol...ahh, the joys of being new to something

but thank you

 

[Chris B]

Apiguard kills mites at lower temperatures, but perhaps not as many as at higher temperatures. The trouble is the thymol is contained in a slow-release gel, in the right proportion so the right vapour dosage is given off in the expected temperature range. Vita's instructions are a "one size fits all", except they suggest reducing dosage for nucs or if bees react strongly (if I remember right). But the beekeeper can always fine tune things, after observation, by increasing/decreasing dosage and/or ventilation.

The main thing is to kill as many mites as possible before they start causing major damage to your worker brood in the autumn. Once the drone brood is gone all the mites concentrate on the ever shrinking worker brood area i.e. your winter bees you depend on to carry the colony through to spring. So even if we have a heatwave in October, it's possibly too late for heavily infested colonies. Thankfully a lot of beekeepers are reporting low mite levels this year so we'll probably get away with late treatments.