water in Abelo solved

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and i will be cutting notches as we do find dead bees drowned in the gullies...sorry MC

i assumed it was condensation from the poly until Abelo told me it was rain water

I wasnt complaining and still feel theyre worth it...hence bought 4 more..just wanted to correct ahead on winter as water collecting and potentially freezing or running down inside of hive wouldnt be ideal
 
and i will be cutting notches as we do find dead bees drowned in the gullies...sorry MC ...
Perhaps they did not drown, but died of something else. I have found dead bees behind lugs in both my Swienties (no water) as well as Abelos (perhaps with or without water).
 
I guess the designers over complicated a simple design of the roof🤐
 
True, and once disturbed it's best to clean rims of hard propolis: the variable levels between it and clean sections of a rim are like a mountain range: water will get in and heat will leave.

Seen this poor seal with wood as well, whether boxes have bees inside or empty and stacked in the open (once was enough to discover the water and the grey combs). I empty the propolis scrapings on to the top bars for bees to re-use.
Handy tip there at the end Eric cheers.
 
I bought the new Abelo roofs and crownboards to try, having already used the old style overhanging roof and five hole crown boards. I asked Damien how they compared, he warned me that some users had reported water getting in the new style roofs and into supers. I thought at the time that they would probably propilise the join when CB is directly on the brood box.
Having bought some large correx sheets after reading Fat Shark‘s aka the Apiaries’s.org’s blog I made an overhanging correx roof to overhang the join on the new roofs.
I have left some of the new roofs as is to compare.
At this stage my thoughts are:
1) some water in the plastic channels could be used by bees in the winter rather than leaving the hive
2) the cortex roofs work out very cheap to make and as the large sheets have been turned into cheap and effective temporary crown boards, super separaters and bait hive roofs, it’s not too much of an imposition
3) the new roofs and crown board combo with the cheap feeder are convenient for feeding bees with syrup compared to the old roofs which need a super or eke to feed in the same way, and you don’t disturb bees when feeding. No need for an eke. They are also good for insulation as they are.
4) It would probably be less expense to make cortex roofs and have a slab of kingsman insulation over a wooden crown board, although this again would need an eke or empty super for feed, unless I cut out the insulation slab to make space for a feeder and replaced the cut out bit after feeding. Downside is time and making them.

Just my thoughts at this time. And might be a good idea to cut notches in the plastic edges for water drainage, although that might reduce available water over winter.

Courty
 
Perhaps they did not drown, but died of something else. I have found dead bees behind lugs in both my Swienties (no water) as well as Abelos (perhaps with or without water).
Quite likely.
Frame feeders, side feeders in paynes nucs, behind the baffle on ashforths, all get blamed for drowning bees, most times they're a visible symptom of bees finding somewhere to go and die away from the nest rather than the bees actually drowning.
 
Quite likely.
Frame feeders, side feeders in paynes nucs, behind the baffle on ashforths, all get blamed for drowning bees, most times they're a visible symptom of bees finding somewhere to go and die away from the nest rather than the bees actually drowning.
Going away to die is certainly a feature of some creatures. Maybe someone has actually observed and recorded that.
 
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Going away to die is certainly a feature of some creatures. Maybe someone has actually observed and recorded that.
I think with bees if they still have the strength and the weather permits they prefer to turn up their toes some distance from the hive, sometimes they don't get the choice hence frame feeders and the like filling with corpses.
 

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