hive in the back garden, can you advise from these pics?

[Mike a]

I could well be wrong here, but the theory the sun warms a hive in the morning doesn't make sense to me. If you have a strong colony keeping the internal hive temperatures in the 30's the strength of the morning sun on the outside of the hive is at best at least 20'c less than inside the hive.

To test this theory more by fortune than design, I have my hives facing in all different directions and it makes no difference if the sun is on the hive or which way the entrance is facing. A few bees will venture out to seemingly test the temperature before they fly. The only factor I could see is if the wind was blowing directly towards the entrance this would delay when the first of the colony started to fly compared to the other colonies.

The fence is a 3 bar horse fence and offers no wind protection
Hive 5 (green) - Empty
Hive 6 (green) - Empty
Hive 1 (blue) - 2010 Queen (split from hive 4)
Hive 2 (red) - Nuc
Hive 3 (blue) - 2009 Queen (artificially swarmed - to create hive 7)
Hive 4 (blue) - 2008 Queen (split from hive 1)
Hive 7 (blue) - 2010 Queen (split from hive 3)
Hive 8 (not shown in the picture) - 2009 Queen split from hive 4 in 2009 faces west and is located a little west of hive 5's position.

As you can see from the picture of my apiary I have hives facing various directions
Hive 7 is always the first to fly closely followed by 3&4&8 and finally hives 1 & 2 when the wind is blowing to the south.
If the wind is blowing to the east all the hives apart from hive 8 start flying within minutes of each other and hive 8 is last.

Another thought I had was the strain of bee is often quoted to be positive early flyers compared to other strains. I discounted this was a major factor as hive 1&8 was a colony produced by the queen in hive 4 and hive 7 was from the queen of hive 3.

I concluded in my unscientific observations the sun didn't seem to make any difference which side of the hive it shone on other than the ambient air temperature reached 7-8'C.
Hive 7 is in total shade all morning due to trees but this colony was always the first send out its foragers, but the wind direction did make a difference as hive 1&2 seemed to be the last colonies to emerge when the wind was blowing on to the entrance which is where we get the cooler winds from most of the time.

 

[oliver90owner]

Mike a,

A couple of things which are perhaps misleading as to a fair test.

Hive temperature is nowhere near the middle 30's overnight. The broodnest will be at that temperature, yes. But house bees don't fly!

The actual colony strength in brood development terms may be a factor. Your queens will likely have different paternal-aquired characteristics.

That is what making simple decisions among a few hives difficult. Take my two Dartingtons; even they were not comparable although adjacent, as one is close to a glasshouse, different insulation was applied and one had been left with an uninsulated super over a slightly smaller 14 x 12 section over winter. But the bees from the hive with super are always just a few minutes earlier on the wing (until recently) than the other. Things may well have changed recently as one Dartington has been moved and the bees have been distributed elsewhere.

I do think, though, that direct sunlight into the entrance will warm up that air and may set up a slightly different convection flow within the hive, stirring the bees into action just that more quickly than an entrance facing north. It has been done that way and exalted as the 'way to do it' for so long that those ealier beeks had to know it was the best direction.

Regards, RAB

 

[m100]

In general, getting early morning sun and getting shade in the afternoon will ensure they get up early to forage for pollen and they also won't waste energy / bees ventilating the hive in the strong afternoon sun. One hive in particular that is less in shade is always foraging earlier than the others.

Maybe it's a microclimate issue as my hives are at circa 450ft with shelter to the south, north and east with the entrances by necessity of management and position are all facing north albeit with a tall fence very nearby so they are sheltered. Another beekeeper at around 100ft above sea level has most of his hives under 20ft tree growth facing every conceivable direction that get little sun when the trees are in leaf. He still gets tons of honey.

 

[tkwinston4]

This conversation is really interesting because I have been thinking my hive isn't getting enough sun and Poly Hive assured me that it cant be the case and this little chat has firmed that up completely for me. Cheers guys x

 

[susbees]

Yes, I love threads that meander (flicking back to the topic). The direction and sunlight issue is fascinating. I have seen hives full of (bad-tempered as it happens) bees with NO flyout in any direction and NO direct sunlight whatsoever. Is that what made them mad? Who knows.

And the putting hive in the garden issue. Obviously lots to think about there. If you have clover on the lawn and the children barefoot, they will get stung (that's the only time I was before handling bees). Issues with drinking bees, eating sweet stuff, accidental footballs hitting the hive, mad dogs, curiosity of themselves or their friends.

Better to learn beecraft with the hive on a farm. Yes, they are amazing to watch but lots to go wrong in a family garden. My 8yo has yet to be stung through the skin, but thinks nothing of misidentifying drones to play with (because that's how you learn to handle a queen isn't it?) and getting the odd worker sting embedded in her washing up gloves in error :S.

 

[CliffDale]

Just out of interest now time has moved on. I did put a hive in the back garden and built a 2 metre screen near to the hive to make them fly high.

The colony was only a 5 frame nuc but it only lasted a day in the garden!

The bees were everywhere! Not quite what I expected. I thought they would go up over the netting an fly off to forrage.

On the lawn, on the daisey's, buzzing over and infront of the net, just everywhere. likelyhood of being stung = 100%.

I moved them to my field apriary just over a mile away. Fortunately, I think the bees stayed in the garden for the day and did not establish a return route to the old position of the hive.

Garden now safe again!

Cliff

 

[VEG]

I have 2 hives at my house one in front garden one in rear. The hive at the rear is active first as it gets the morning sun. The hive at the front is active later and then stays active later than the other hive as this is in the shade in the late afternoon/evening

 

[susbees]

Interesting what you say Craig about late afternoon shade. The hives we have with large trees for backdrop to keep off winter wind go to "bed" over an hour before the hives at the top of the field with eight foot basket willow plantation for shelter.