Damp rather than cold kills bees

[Swarm]

Like most things, it depends on the colony IMO. One uninsulated, wooden Winter I had colonies that seemed to have survived on thin air. I've also had to add fondant to bees in poly hives.
Look for frugal bees.

 

[madasafish]

It sounds like it was a problem with the hive, not what it was made of.

Sorry I was not clear.. that was all wooden hives.

 

[REDWOOD]

Bees do seem to adapt well to their environment, some better than others but poorly mated queens are totally out of Beekeeper's control and probably the the biggest reason for not coming out of winter alive and the biggest reason for isolation starvation IMHO


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[charlievictorbravo]

What about humidity in the summer ? the hotter the air the more fluid it can carry. raising the humidity from 68% to 87% increases the percentage of brood mummification caused by the chalk brood by 8%

Zachary Huang (Michigan State University) wrote a paper "Varroa Mite Reproductive Biology" (from around 2003). Almost as an aside he stated there "If there are ways to artificially increase the hive RH to about 80%, then the varroa mite population will never increase to a damaging level."

I wrote to him about this and asked if he'd ever followed up that idea but unfortunately he hadn't - don't know why, maybe no money to do so.

Based on the above, I thought that I'd risk other repercussions to try to control Varroa in this way. It has not been brilliantly successful as I still have mites but I don't know what sort of Varroa problems I would have had if I'd done things differently - the eternal problem of small scale trials!

CVB

 

[Finman]

Zachary Huang (Michigan State University) wrote a paper "Varroa Mite Reproductive Biology" (from around 2003).
CVB

But very good and clear varroa biology paper. Year is 2013.

 

[user 6228]

But very good and clear varroa biology paper. Year is 2013.

it is october 2012
Huang, Z., 2012. Varroa Mite Reproductive Biology. American Bee Journal, 152(10), pp.981–985. Available at: http://www.extension.org/pages/65450/varroa-mite-reproductive-biology.

 

[Swarm]

Sorry I was not clear.. that was all wooden hives.

I don't understand how your combs went mouldy merely because they were in wooden hives, I'd be more inclined to suspect a leak or water ingress of some sort.

 

[madasafish]

I don't understand how your combs went mouldy merely because they were in wooden hives, I'd be more inclined to suspect a leak or water ingress of some sort.

It gets rather wet here with many days with grey skies and wet ground. And frequent cold nights with warmer days.
Our Association apiary - and other beekeepers - have the same problem..

(It's only combs not in current use in an occupied hive. I assume it is condensation .)

 

[charlievictorbravo]

it is october 2012
Huang, Z., 2012. Varroa Mite Reproductive Biology. American Bee Journal, 152(10), pp.981–985. Available at: http://www.extension.org/pages/65450/varroa-mite-reproductive-biology.

That's the paper I quoted above but I got the year of publication wrong - see paragraph D (Effect of Humidity) under the heading "Factors Affecting Mite Reproduction" therein.

CVB

 

[Beesnaturally]

If you've ever worked all day in a damp room at 3 deg C, and in a dry room at the same temp, you'll know why damp+cold kills bees.

Your clothing is damp and won't insulate you. This is why a walk on a -1 frosty morning (zero humidity) is so much nicer than a walk in +1 damp air. Its not the 2 degrees making a difference, its the damp.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Why would bees get damp?
PS. CVB hasn’t been here for over a year?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Why would bees get damp?

Maybe with a bad beekeeper who cannot be bothered to spend any time maintaining the hives?

 

[Beesnaturally]

Maybe with a bad beekeeper who cannot be bothered to spend any time maintaining the hives?

Or one whose focus is discovering which individuals are strongest. Because he thinks that matters.

I won't say the combination of weeks of driving rain followed immediately by a hard cold snap has been pain free. But the post-mortems have begun. Isolation starvation? Who wants bees that can't organise their pantry? Queen loss? Who wants bees that let varroa eat their queen, or simply don't recognise its time for a new one, or recognise too late... etc.

Winter is the great winnower in natural systems. Mollycoddling has a cost that extends into the future.

If you are interested in making strong bees.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Mollycoddling has a cost that extends into the future.

and neglect is inexcusable

 

[Erichalfbee]

If you've ever worked all day in a damp room at 3 deg C, and in a dry room at the same temp, you'll know why damp+cold kills bees.

Your clothing is damp and won't insulate you. This is why a walk on a -1 frosty morning (zero humidity) is so much nicer than a walk in +1 damp air. Its not the 2 degrees making a difference, its the damp.

I’m not going to let you resurrect a six year old thread when you have made this argument in multiple others.