- Joined
- Oct 19, 2009
- Messages
- 1,479
- Reaction score
- 303
- Location
- Newport, South Wales
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- >6
In summer, do you have any hive ventilation other than the entrance?
...Did you see any water running out of the hive?
No... not even an Open Mesh Floor, like all the old time beeks.In summer, do you have any hive ventilation other than the entrance?
if the temperatture near the nectar is higher than near the floor then you have a difference in humidity.If there was any water lying on the floor it would push the humidity to almost 100%, which would bring nectar desiccation rate down to near zero.
I'm thinking the water must leave the hive as vapour by advection through the entrance (in the absence of alternative ventilation)
If there was any water lying on the floor it would push the humidity to almost 100%, which would bring nectar desiccation rate down to near zero.
I'm thinking the water must leave the hive as vapour by advection through the entrance (in the absence of alternative ventilation) which suggests that large volumes of air must be exchanged. If the external temperature is 35 C as Finman said then the bees don't need to warm it up by much.
Finman - how high is the relative humidity in your summer when the temperature is 35 C?
In summer, do you have any hive ventilation other than the entrance?
if the temperatture near the nectar is higher than near the floor then you have a difference in humidity.
And all that yellow rain contains water so it doesnt all leave in the vapour phase
I meant temp inside the hive.
Your calculations are really mad, I must say.
.
Probably.
Are you suggesting that they drink it all?
Obviously the bees consume nectar to enable them to generate heat and waft the air about in the hive. That will produce yellow rain.
Why are they mad? The basic calculation of how much water must be evaporated from the nectar to make honey is pretty straight forward.
But bees have done it millions of years without human help, and they continue to do it. But now this forum will reviele it out without any research.
Derekm has seen that bees drink condensation water.... During heavy nectar flow... And yellow rain contains water...
They may be... research is noticeably absent about the collection of condensate and the excretory behaviour of A.m.
I have seen bees drinking condensate. ~I have seen them excrete a liquid. So it isnt impossible
That all I can reliably say,
Derek's right about this, there's very little research, and we're now having to guess at what happens...
We do know that water does not drip out from the entrance ... but the number of total volume air changes in the hive seem extremely excessive?
IF you have a room in which the temp. is the same throughout, and there is little or nothing to cause air movement in the room, and then IF the air at one side is made (somehow) more humid, how does this affect the movement of air within the room, does the humidity equalize within the room, or is the (presumed) Phase Change (???) that occurs cause a temp. differential, which in turn will cause air flow within the room and it is the temp. that equalizes and not the humidity - I'm not sure what this would be called, and I haven't been able to find a clear answer online.
We know that bees do forage for and transport water into the hive. Presumably they could carry it out by the same means, rather than drinking it. That would require a lot of bee activity (leaving the hive to remove water and then returning) during honey ripening which apparently happens mostly at night.
That doesn't make the calculations mad.....
If we can determine how the bees remove all the excess water from the hive and we can help them to do it more efficiently, then that may improve honey yields. Would that be mad?
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