trick of the week: beebeeka opens hives :)

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BeeBeeKa

House Bee
Joined
Mar 4, 2014
Messages
282
Reaction score
2
Location
Co. Sligo, Ireland
Hive Type
Langstroth
Number of Hives
8 poly hives
It was a calm, sunny, and relatively warm day on Wednesday this week. The forecast however promised that the following days will be cold, with frost on every single night up to a middle of the next week( failed, as always :) ). Thus, it was a perfect day to me for taking actions :) As I mentioned in one of threads before, I feel a need to take off crown boards from overwintering hives once a month, in order to check colony size shrinkage and resetting dummy board in accordance with that size. Besides, I promised in the following post http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=519700&postcount=14 that I`ll show pictures of my crown boards and top bars, thus an experienced beekeeper will probably be able to assess both : a level of dampness and a general situation in the hives, where varroa boards were left in mesh floors since early autumn. There is a little gap between edges of varroa board and walls on both sides of it( about 5mm combined). That`s for ventilation, for an ease of condensed water (if any) leaving the hive, and because of unique structure of my floors (hmmm… sounds good :) )
I`m pretty glad to see no signs of nosema in any of my hives so far, - in comparison with the previous year, when all my hives suffered because of fully opened mesh floors… to a certain extent.
It`s obvious to me that cold, dump and wind are those chilling factors that dramatically weakens immune system of many organisms, and bees are not an exclusion. (Different species have different abilities to withstand those factors although, of course).
I made triplets of pictures showing 1) General view of a particular hive 2) It`s crown board 3) It`s top bars.
Hives are in a consecutive order from 1 to 9, missing №2 which I`ve forgotten to take picture of, probably because it was a bit of disappointment to see only 1 seem of bees in it… I knew it was the weakest hive in the row; they were on 3 frames only in January before the dummy board. Now I had to leave them 2 only. But fingers crossed, as they are still very proactive even in comparison with some of my biggest hives: №6 and№7 i.e.
These 2 hives got bees on 6 and 5 frames accordingly. These are the only 2 hives (in my apiary) fully manufactured on my own. Floors made of thin wooden planks 12 and 6 mm thick, with fibro glass or plastic mesh, and varroa board between 2 sets of those. Brood boxes made of 5cm thick kingspan ( or similar) and plywood for frame supports. Roofs made of kingspan (or similar) and metal sheets. The metal sheets are abolished by me nowadays as kingspan works great even without them ( see the hives №8 and№9( I mean, see the results ;) ) №8 bees are on 3 frames only though and in a far corner only, but it`s my fault as I ruined their cluster in January during my little experiment ;( )
The whole Idea was to build up warm enough hives, with an ability to regulate a passive ventilation by means of a varroa board, but also light enough for an ease of transportation by one person. Seen results it looks like I`ve succeeded, as they are about as strong as the strongest hive in the apiary - №1.(hmmm… I`m still bragging, am I? :) But bragging is sooo sweat. Just like honey… We all like honey, do not we? :) )
As you can see the central areas of crown boards of the hives I made (№6&№7) are absolutely dry, except some spots in the green painted areas, - the result of warm hive air meeting the cold ambient air and cold edges on which the moisture settles. The matter is : I did not have a table saw last year, and used a jig saw for cutting panels. Thus, despite all my efforts and tricks, the top edges of the brood boxes are not flat enough, I`m afraid. Thus some warm air from a hive may seeping under crown board. It helps the moisture to leave the hive, but it makes the hive itself a bit colder in comparison with the other hives. I see it as bees are a bit sluggish in these 2 hives in comparison with the others. But it looks like it does not affect much their health state. It will be interesting to watch and compare their brood rearing ability during the following months.
I can`t promise to give as detailed report on that as this one, cause I may get too busy ;) But I`ll do my best to give the most crucial info when the time comes.
Share and enjoy
Beebeeka`s joy :)
:seeya: P.S. Colonies are probably not big enough because the queens stopped laying very early last year and because of a natural winter colony shrinkage. №8 – my fault, as I said. №2 – is a mystery for me…so far, as it was a relatively strong colony in autumn. Might be some disease (but varroa) from which they recovered( or not)…Very proactive now (instead of been sluggish when sick,- it`s normally the first attribute of majority of diseases IMHO).

Hive №1







Hive №3




Hive №4





Hive №5




Hive №6




Hive №7




Hive №8


 
Are you South of the Equator?
... had MINUS 2 and 80mph winds here last week !

Sub Tropical... not

Yeghes da
 
So what, if anything, has this foray into the bees at this time of the year told you and what, if anything can you do about it ?

For what it's worth my view is that it looking into the hives at this point in time is of no value ... regardless of weather conditions. If you want to look at them invest in some clear crownboards which will allow you to look without disturbing the valuable seal that the bees put around their home for the duration of the winter.

Not looking for a confrontation - just trying to get my head around what you hoped to achieve ....
 
Not relevant comments will be ignored, I`m sorry… just do not have enough time ;)

Me neither... but just had one of our beekeepering groups novice 1st year +1 phone me to ask if I could help her "inspect" her colonies as someone on the beekeeping forum had posted lots and lots of pictures of his bees on the comb taken last week!


Said to lass that it was probably by a very very experienced beekeeper for Scientific purposes.
Advice to her.. do open up your hives for a curiosity peek at them just yet!

Yeghes da
 
just trying to get my head around what you hoped to achieve ....
just trying to get my head around how many times I should repost my posts to get some heads around :)
As I mentioned in one of threads before, I feel a need to take off crown boards from overwintering hives once a month, in order to check colony size shrinkage and resetting dummy board in accordance with that size. Besides, I promised in the following post http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=519700&postcount=14 that I`ll show pictures of my crown boards and top bars, thus an experienced beekeeper will probably be able to assess both : a level of dampness and a general situation in the hives, where varroa boards were left in mesh floors since early autumn.

 
Not looking for a confrontation - just trying to get my head around what you hoped to achieve ....

THIS
I`ll take pictures of my crown boards and top bars when it won`t be so windy, just to show you all that I`m not braging


Impressive...eh???? ;)
 
So there really wasn't any point in it then ? You dd nothing apart from disturb the bees for your own curiosity ?
Just emerge that you left all 10 frames for a colony occupying only 3 frames of stores( Hive №8 in my example). When it would be easier for them to maintain a proper temperature for brood rearing? In a big room, or in a small one? Propolis disturbance is unavoidable anyway if you treat them with oxalic trickling. And it`s not crucial if top edges of your boxes are flat enough.
 
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It was a calm, sunny, and relatively warm day on Wednesday this week.

There are very long shadows being cast by those bees on the top bars...
what was the air temperature and time of day that you took the photos?

It`s obvious to me that cold, dump and wind are those chilling factors that dramatically weakens immune system of many organisms, and bees are not an exclusion.

nothing quite so dramatic as taking the roof off at any temperature below 14C though...

№8 bees are on 3 frames only though and in a far corner only, but it`s my fault as I ruined their cluster in January during my little experiment ;(

Should we be surprised?

... The whole Idea was to build up warm enough hives

Your curiosity should be tempered with some planning. - If you really want to observe inside your hives at low temperatures, then you should invest in appropriate items such as clear cover boards, an endoscope, or installing a wireless camera with infrared light.

I'm not "having a go" - I really don't want inexperienced beeks to read this thread and think it's normal to inspect hives during the winter.
 
Not that i would take the crown board of this time of the year thanks to the forum members good advice, but if i ever felt a photo shoot moment coming on and i seen that level of moisture on the crown board, should i be worried through a lack of insulation. ?
 
I'd have understood this post better if there had been some pictures to look at! :eek::)
 
There are very long shadows being cast by those bees on the top bars...
what was the air temperature and time of day that you took the photos?
Afternoon, ~7C`
nothing quite so dramatic as taking the roof off at any temperature below 14C though...
Did you ever trickled oxalic acid solvent at Christmas Time? …Are they all died? ;)
Take a notice, I do not state that resetting crown board once a month is necessary… I state I feel a need. It means I gonna look for a better balance if it`s available, as I did not came across this sort of info in books or internet. It makes me feel like Copernic who stated that an Earth turns around a Sun while the rest is laughing over him… giving no clear answer why are the winter colony losses are 30% in some places, or even more, when we come back to bees ;) ( no good enough answer to me anyway).
Should we be surprised?
No, as I`m not.
Should Your curiosity should be tempered with some planning. - If you really want to observe inside your hives at low temperatures, then you should invest in appropriate items such as clear cover boards, an endoscope, or installing a wireless camera with infrared light.
How your expensive tools will help you to execute the very simple action: reset a dummy board?
I'm not "having a go" - I really don't want inexperienced beeks to read this thread and think it's normal to inspect hives during the winter.
Do not read me then. My amount of hives is 3 folds higher than yours, thus I`m not in your league :p
(Joking :) )
 
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Just emerge that you left all 10 frames for a colony occupying only 3 frames of stores( Hive №8 in my example). When it would be easier for them to maintain a proper temperature for brood rearing? In a big room, or in a small one? Propolis disturbance is unavoidable anyway if you treat them with oxalic trickling. And it`s not crucial if top edges of your boxes are flat enough.

But, Bless you... you did not take the lid off to do an Oxalic trickle ... if your colonies were small the time to have thought about that was when you put them to bed in the autumn. As far as we know you were not going to reduce the size of the hive(s) any further and even if you were thinking that is what you intended there is little sense at this time of the year of removing frames of bees (or anything else for that matter) from the hive.

You have failed to grasp one of the most basic aspects of beekeeping .. bees really do not like being disturbed during the winter months and there is little, if anything, to be be gained by disturbing them now.

OA by trickling is getting less popular among thinking beekeepers as there is evidence that the bees are really not helped by this treatment for mites - whilst it is relatively effective more and more beekeepers are moving towards OA sublimation which really does not affect or disturb the bees unduly whilst knocking mites down very effectively,

So ... my case rests ... you took the lid off simply to demontrate that some of your bees were alive > and show us some photos ?

Most of the thinking beekeepers on here would have put their ear to the hives and listened to the hum and left them well alone 'until it is warm enough to inspect the colonies is short sleeves..

Hopefully, your actions and the resultant comments will serve only to discourage other beekeepers from opening their hives ... You don't seem to be gaining a lot of approval for what you have done so far ?
 
Not that i would take the crown board of this time of the year thanks to the forum members good advice, but if i ever felt a photo shoot moment coming on and i seen that level of moisture on the crown board, should i be worried through a lack of insulation. ?
I`m afraid there is no one who`ll be able to answer your question but me :) While I`ll prefer to wait a bit more to give a reliable answer. The only thing I see so far that bees in hives with moisture on CB are more proactive than those with dry once… The strength of the colonies is about the same though, as you can see.
 
Most of the thinking beekeepers on here would have put their ear to the hives and listened to the hum and left them well alone 'until it is warm enough to inspect the colonies is short sleeves..

:iagree:

Buy a stethoscope.. £2.90 fleabuy!!!

Nos da
 
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