Weather and checking bees

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paulrollings

New Bee
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Nov 29, 2010
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Location
Oxfordshire, UK
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National
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Really sorry for daft question. I'm looking outside wanting to check on my hives, but in two minds as to whether this is a good idea or not. Its very grey and windy and worry about upsetting my bees.

What are the minimum weather conditions for checking bees, i.e. max wind speed, temperature etc.

Many thanks for any advice, pointers.

Paul
 
Hi Paul,

The minimum temperature at which bees will go out is 50 degrees F, 10 degrees C.
therefore above this is good, especially because foraging bees are the stingy ones, so with luck they will be out while you are looking!

A calm day and a hot day - ie 15 Deg C or over is probably optimum. Sunlight is good because you can hold the frame at an angle and the sunlight shines down into the cells and you can see eggs etc at the bottom more easily.

You can look at the top of a hive pretty much any comfortable weather, but if you are down in the brood nest chilling the brood is bad, so leave looking at that for hot days.
If you are just bunging on a new honey super you can do that pretty much any weather, but avoid thunderstorms because if the lightening doesn't get you the bees will!

Commercial beekeepers with lots of hives can't be as choosey as us amateurs and they open them up in all sorts of inclement weather, but why do it if you don't have to!
 
Hi Paul,

The minimum temperature at which bees will go out is 50 degrees F, 10 degrees C.
therefore above this is good, especially because foraging bees are the stingy ones, so with luck they will be out while you are looking!

A calm day and a hot day - ie 15 Deg C or over is probably optimum. Sunlight is good because you can hold the frame at an angle and the sunlight shines down into the cells and you can see eggs etc at the bottom more easily.

You can look at the top of a hive pretty much any comfortable weather, but if you are down in the brood nest chilling the brood is bad, so leave looking at that for hot days.
If you are just bunging on a new honey super you can do that pretty much any weather, but avoid thunderstorms because if the lightening doesn't get you the bees will!

Commercial beekeepers with lots of hives can't be as choosey as us amateurs and they open them up in all sorts of inclement weather, but why do it if you don't have to!

erm, cos of being at work on all the nice days!!
sometimes 'needs must' and with using a brolly to keep off the rain, a quick inspection to see if all is well and no q/c shouldn't take more than 2 minutes
 
Last edited:
at 10c i would not inspect unless i really had to, my normal criteria to work on 16c and no wind and i prefer full inspection only at shirt sleeve weather times

This morning at 11:00 i inspected two hives that i requeen by the method "Q between brood frames and rose water " about 10 days ago but on Tuesday's SBI inspection one showed a charged QC and reworked play cups in the old brood area (new white wax deposited), so i needed to inspect, I only looked at supers on a few other

It was 17c, windy and spitting rain, the bees who are normally calm were even with smoke were quite Manic so i will leave other insection until the weather improves
 
Any day that the bees are foraging strongly is fine. If windy, use a cover cloth or the first frame you remove to cover the top of the brood chamber as you work.

It's more about retaining the brood heat than anything and brood are pretty hardy.
 
Bee inspector visited Friday. One beek put him off until next week because the weather was 'iffy'. We did the first couple of nucs and then it hissed down with rain. Puddles in upturned roofs. Job done and out of the way. I may get a small amount of chilled brood but he was not long checking the frames - mostly packed laying patterns. Some are without a queen, or a freshly started queen with only a little open brood. Not entirely the best time for him to do it but it will not alter the overall well-bing of the bees significantly. If the inspectors only inspected in fine, sunny, warm, windless weather they would never get the job done.

RAB
 
Hey,

I have learned the hard way by putting of inspections cause the weather is iffy.

You must inspect as it can become to late and they swarm....

I have had hives swarmed in brutal weather, so you have no choice. I would only be put of by temperature espically in early spring or late Autumn or Winter.

So yea do your inspection as they could be holding the swarm for a window of warmth to leave and you will miss it, like me you work!


Busy Bee
 
I am not a commercial beekeeper but I have to do my inspections in a certain time frame due to work and having 14 colonies now!
I try my best to avoid rain and cold but other than that I go ahead and inspect when I can.

Collected a small to medium swarm (probably cast) this morning and combined it into a failing colony (Q-) as soon as I got home. Windy but actually the weather improved from when I collected (trying to rain and windy) to when I arrived at t receiving hive (partly sunny, bit warmer but still windy).
 

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