Mesh floor sliding tray in or out?

[Gunzo]

I leave mine all out until October November Unless it’s a nuc that I’ve just moved to a full size hive.

leave them in then November to May. Leave them out until the following October then

 

[bobba]

Sorry guys, but I am still not convinced by your anecdotal evidence that bees can recycle wax.

Unfortunately, I too am only running on anecdotal evidence.

I do not now for certain either way. But think it unlikely they can recycle.

Observing nibbled frames of wax in the hive only indicates they have nibbled away some wax.

If bees could recycle wax, then surely someone would have devised a way to get bees to draw out comb faster by giving them wax, maybe powder.

Surely you would see them collecting wax from the derbies beneath the hive.

Even natural bee hives drop wax, why would bees have evolved to be so wast full with something they could recycle. I do not see propolis derbies btw.

Another oddity - I have always observed large amounts of wax derbies when I house a new swarm on fresh foundation. My bees seem to drop the most wax when drawing comb. I keep them on solid floors to begin with. Why so much wax is drooped is a mystery to me, but if they could be recycling it at less effort, then its even more perplexing.

If bees can recycle wax, I do not think it is as simple as "its less effort than making new". As Little_bees has pointed too, maybe in cold weather recycling becomes preferential. Or working in cooler parts of the hive away from the brood cluster, perhaps where you sometimes find QC.....

I am open to the possibility they can recycle, but not convinced for now.

If anyone could point be to some rock solid proof either way I would be most interested.

And sorry tacking your thread off topic Cobbydaler, its something I have become unintentionally good at recently.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I'm fairly certain I read somewhere that someone gave their bees bits of coloured candle wax; a while later the foundation had speckles of the coloured wax through out it.

I've also read in one of my books about bees using old wax to make qcs... I'll have a look through and post on here.

 

[captain666]

bobba; < I do not see propolis derbies btw. >

This is understandable, for propolis is so sticky that the foragers who bring it home need help from the house-bees to remove it from their baskets.

Overall I'm with you in that they don't recycle wax. For such a fastidious insect in all their other endeavours, why would they take back old perhaps dirty wax?

Besides it's part of a house-bee's progression to go through a wax producing stage as their wax glands mature. In older bees this ability can return if needs be.

On the other hand, wax production is very energy consuming in that it has been estimated it takes the equivalent of eight pounds of honey to produce one pound of wax, But one pound of wax goes a very long way.

We as beekeepers take say about 50/60 pounds of honey off a hive, but the bees over a season produce many multiples of this.

Anyone care to guess roughly what weight of pollen they bring in each year? If you don't know, you'll be astounded.

Fred.

 

[Tommo]

From using hives with solid wooden floors I am aware of the amount of condensation that can form in a hive over the winter and as far as the mesh floors are concerned apart from the Varroa element I think they are a life saver for the winter and I never insert the board only when I treat with Formic Acid, which I have used for twenty plus years now with a Liebig dispenser
Until last winter I inserted the board at least three inches away from the mesh allowing as much ventilation from below to diffuse in rather than blow in. In addition I always have insulation by way of blankets on the crown board all year to try and reduce condensation from dripping back into the cluster I also wrap my hives as they are home made and this helps preserve them in addition to providing insulation from the cold damp winds we get of the sea.
I recently invested in some polystyrene hives and set up the insert in the same manner expecting to have no problems with condensation and was surprised to see inspite of all the insulation that is provided I still had higher than expected levels of condensation. I know the advice with these hives is to leave the insert out over winter but I have been caught out with the cold easterlies before so want to afford some protection from a cold draught "they really don't like it up em"!
These hives are on stands so my solution was to remove the insert entirely and make a skirt taking it down so that the mesh was effectively at the top of a tunnel around 12-18" increase the insulation over the crown board as theoly lids don't provide enough.
So all ventilation came from the mesh floor there was no through air movement because the crown board is a sealed cover of poly carbonate but more importantly there was also no condensation. The bees were able to control their own ventilation and came out of the winter really well

 

[Patrick1]

I have a mesh floor with a sliding floor, do I keep the tray in permanently? Or just put it in every now and again to test for notes etc? Any advice would be appreciated

The tray can be left in, that's not the problem. Cleaning it regularly is the key, nothing to strong and smelly just scrape it off into a bag for safe disposal. If not the underfloor will become a haven for wax moth and anys. we are moving all our colonies over to solid floors, we had better brood rearing results with the solid floor than the mesh type.