Hive Loss

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Do you mean close the crownboard with porter bee escapes and insulate?

No. I mean cover the holes and then cover the crownboard with insulant - 25mm, or more, of expanded polystyrene (EPS)would do. Any good appropriate insulation would do. A lot use kingspan; mine are normally covered with 50mm EPS. Some don't use insulation and claim their bees are OK, but do not really tell us if they are completely dry as well. They would be over strong colonies, normally, just as my over-wintering colonies are strong going into winter and relatively strong when Spring arrives.

Over the winter the bees simply consume honey to live and keep warm (produce thermal heat energy). It stands to simple reasoning that the warmer they are (up to a point, of course), the less food (energy source) they will need to consume to maintain the cluster temperature above the minimum for colony survival.

There are no problems with drawing moisture in to create damp and build up bacteria. I do it, lots do it; we all have dry hives, healthy bees. Bees produce several kilograms of water during the winter, that can cause condensation. OMFs (more than) adequately ventilate the hive and the insulation over the crownboard prevents condensation on the hive 'ceiling'.

Crownboards only need holes in them when being used with a feeder. Or for fitting bee escapes if the board is being used as a clearer-board (ie not as a crownboard) My crownboards are a solid sheet of 9mm ply. My feeder boards have a circular hole for the rapid feeder. My clearer boards are a completely separate item.

Hope that helps. There are numerous threads in the archives regarding these facets of hive constructionand use.

Regards, RAB
 
Sorry to hear your bad news Kathy, it must be dispiriting with just the one colony.

I'm surprised the Bee Inspector has not offered to get them checked out, pretty sure that they offer this service
 
just to lend support to Rab there, I got myself a glass quilt for my one colony, being paranoid I wanted to keep an eye on them. Best thing I think I could do- can monitor size and location of cluster and amount of stores left (to a degree). More relevant, I could see there was no condensation forming in the crownboard. That was with OMF, piece of glass covering the feed hole and plenty of insulation on them. I am now firmly of the opinion that top ventilation is no longer relevant without solid floors.
 
Sorry to hear your bad news Kathy, it must be dispiriting with just the one colony.

I'm surprised the Bee Inspector has not offered to get them checked out, pretty sure that they offer this service

Standard advice in Western Region is seal the hive and phone or email the Regional Bee Inspector for advice (they, unlike the SBIs) work all year round.
 
No I Have not anyone to test for Nosema however, I took the advice of Hebeegeebee earlier. I will seal the hive tomorrow a.m and have attempted to contact the regional bee inspector. The details were on the 'Beebase' website. Good site and well recommended. Thankyou Hebeegeebee.

I also managed to contact the Seasonal bee inspector who had advised a second visit last year as he was also unsure of the hive activity and general health. First of all he thought it could have been EFB, then he said the brood was patchy, larvae at different stages and the Queen was laying Drone eggs in worker cells. I told him about the increase and decrease in numbers and that they were not great at removing the corpses. Slow around the hive entrance at times and the sporadic deaths of the newly merged bood halfway out of the comb. At the time he could not advise on health or activity. I even offered the thought of requeening. I did try to contact him 8/52 after his first visit a couple of times as I wanted to give them and/or me the best possible chance to rectify the situation. Either destory or treat the colony because of disease or advise accordingly. He has agreed to have a look for me tomorrow however, I am unsure if I trust his judgement, I'll see what he says and may reattempt contact with the Regional bee inspector on Monday.

Kathy.
 

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