What did you do in the Apiary today?

[gmonag]

I don't know if that is true ... draught reducers around the bottom of the hives - yes .. closing off the mesh floors - not so sure. Mine all have OMF all year round .. the hive stands I make protect the bottom of the hives from draughts .. bees seem to be OK with this arrangement.

I wish I knew the "right" answer here. I use wood and leave the correx board under the OMF during the winter, but about 2-3cm below. The intention is to reduce draughts but it does leave a full slot open. There must be zero insulation value with correx. The bees do just fine with this arrangement but next winter I am going to leave the board in immediately below the OMF. I know that that is not recommended by some because the debris is then not accessible to the bees, but I photograph and clean the boards each week or so during the winter, when I weigh the hives.
How do you square leaving the OMF open with using poly to gain maximum insulation?

PS I have not seen any propolising of the OMF. I have noticed that the clusters are at the front of the hive (frames cold way) away from the rear slot.

 

[Boston Bees]

I don't know if that is true ... draught reducers around the bottom of the hives - yes .. closing off the mesh floors - not so sure.

Well, I have known you to quote DerekM, and this is what he recommended, so .... (my hives are all poly though, not sure I would do it in a wooden hive)

 

[Boston Bees]

Let us know how you get on, some sure benefits for keeping them closed of all winter or even 3/4 solid floors.

I will be trying it all year round, winter and summer, so will see how it goes. Poly hives of course.

 

[E&MBees]

Moved the bees to a new out apiary Friday evening. Little activity yesterday, weather was damp and chilly. Checked today as a bit of sun & slightly warmer. Plenty of activity. They have found an excellent source of pollen and appear to have re-orientated to their new location fine. Bit of a traffic jam at the hive entrance at times.

 

[CaptainCymru]

It's quite warm here so decided to open them, first time since arun November. Found the queen , 1.5 brood boxes full of bees and 3 full frames of stores .Decided to bite the bullet , slapped a crownboard on with only a rear hole open up to the new poly box I've put on top. 6 frames with foundation ,hopefully they will start getting them drawn.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I don't know if that is true ... draught reducers around the bottom of the hives - yes .. closing off the mesh floors - not so sure. Mine all have OMF all year round .. the hive stands I make protect the bottom of the hives from draughts .. bees seem to be OK with this arrangement.

I agree they do fine with omf floors these nucs

It's quite warm here so decided to open them, first time since arun November. Found the queen , 1.5 brood boxes full of bees and 3 full frames of stores .Decided to bite the bullet , slapped a crownboard on with only a rear hole open up to the new poly box I've put on top. 6 frames with foundation ,hopefully they will start getting them drawn.

And the conversion begins

 

[CaptainCymru]

I agree they do fine with omf floors these nucs

And the conversion begins

Indeed it does ! Well it was my first winter and a sole colony I bought in July , had no training because of covid so read a few books and guessed my way through , kept the monitoring board in all winter and added the cork insulation.Pleased to say they made it and I had a suprise at how many bees were in there !hoping to get them into these poly nuc hives now and retire the wood hive into two bait hives for the swarming season !

 

[drex]

This is a question and not a criticism. I presume the crow board with an open slot is so that bees can enter but not too much heat? As hot air rises will it not go up into the top box anyway, and if it did not, would they want to go up into a colder box? Have never understood the logic of this.

 

[CaptainCymru]

This is a question and not a criticism. I presume the crow board with an open slot is so that bees can enter but not too much heat? As hot air rises will it not go up into the top box anyway, and if it did not, would they want to go up into a colder box? Have never understood the logic of this.

So the nest is at the front of the hive for sure, the hole for the crownboard is in the back and quite small.hoping the board will conserve heat on eggs already laid.Whether they will go into the top box is a guess.I doubt they will cluster and starve up there anyway , they were all over the double brood when I opened them.Its a gamble anyway but I'm off back to sea for a few weeks ,dont want to be caught out by an early swarm !

 

[GuyNir]

Topped up fondant and pollen sub. Some colonies are really going for it...

 

[BigAshW]

Both apiaries have bees flying. Added pollen patties and some fondant on a couple hopefully for the last time. Five colonies out of five through the winter so far.

Next year I need get a handle on weighing hives and assessing stores more accurately rather than the guess work I'm doing at the moment.

Aim for the year is to fill my two sites by the end of the season and go into next winter with 16 colonies.

 

[pargyle]

I wish I knew the "right" answer here. I use wood and leave the correx board under the OMF during the winter, but about 2-3cm below. The intention is to reduce draughts but it does leave a full slot open. There must be zero insulation value with correx. The bees do just fine with this arrangement but next winter I am going to leave the board in immediately below the OMF. I know that that is not recommended by some because the debris is then not accessible to the bees, but I photograph and clean the boards each week or so during the winter, when I weigh the hives.
How do you square leaving the OMF open with using poly to gain maximum insulation?

PS I have not seen any propolising of the OMF. I have noticed that the clusters are at the front of the hive (frames cold way) away from the rear slot.

Well, I have known you to quote DerekM, and this is what he recommended, so .... (my hives are all poly though, not sure I would do it in a wooden hive)

Yes ... I have a great deal of respect for Derek in terms of his experiments with hive types and insulation... whether he is right that solid floors are the way to go .... jury's out as far as I'm concerned. If you look at my hive stands you will see that they all have the ability to put an inspection board in below the hive but there is about a 50 to 60mm drop from the OMF down to the inspection board. I do leave the boards in for most of the time as it provides evidence about what my bees are up to and it does reduce any serious draughts at the bottom of the hive. Would I block off the mesh floor ? No ...

I do clean the inspection boards very regularly - at least once a week usually.

It allows the majority of debris to fall through which saves the bees cleaning up - any live varroa that drop through (Ok - I'm not suggesting that it has any noticeable effect in controlliing varroa before anyone thinks that it what I'm suggesting - if it does I've not noticed it) are not going to get back up and will probably be gobbled up by the critters that find their way onto the boards.

Where the inspection board in located it is very easy to slide it out, look, clean it off and replace. I found the stupid slots on my Paynes polys to be too close to the bottom of the hive and the boards don't slide in and out very well. Debris mounts up around them and I rather think that the critters that can live in the debris are a bit too close to the hive for my liking.

You can see in the photos that the top of the hive stand is effectively a tray once the inspection board is in and being enclosed on three sides there are no seroious draughts - the front of the 'tray' is blocked off so I don't get bees undershooting the hive and trying to get in through the mesh floor. Plus ..it's rock solid and stable ... It meets all the things I think are good for my bees.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/99514363@N06/albums/72157644503927472

 

[gmonag]

The final result is very similar to my setup and the slot at the back is about the same size. Not poly though obviously.

 

[pargyle]

The final result is very similar to my setup and the slot at the back is about the same size. Not poly though obviously.

I think it works well for both poly and timbe hives ... it's not difficult to incorporate a similar arrangment into any hive stand ... lots of advantages to it.

 

[GuyNir]

Yes ... I have a great deal of respect for Derek in terms of his experiments with hive types and insulation... whether he is right that solid floors are the way to go .... jury's out as far as I'm concerned. If you look at my hive stands you will see that they all have the ability to put an inspection board in below the hive but there is about a 50 to 60mm drop from the OMF down to the inspection board. I do leave the boards in for most of the time as it provides evidence about what my bees are up to and it does reduce any serious draughts at the bottom of the hive. Would I block off the mesh floor ? No ...

I do clean the inspection boards very regularly - at least once a week usually.

It allows the majority of debris to fall through which saves the bees cleaning up - any live varroa that drop through (Ok - I'm not suggesting that it has any noticeable effect in controlliing varroa before anyone thinks that it what I'm suggesting - if it does I've not noticed it) are not going to get back up and will probably be gobbled up by the critters that find their way onto the boards.

Where the inspection board in located it is very easy to slide it out, look, clean it off and replace. I found the stupid slots on my Paynes polys to be too close to the bottom of the hive and the boards don't slide in and out very well. Debris mounts up around them and I rather think that the critters that can live in the debris are a bit too close to the hive for my liking.

You can see in the photos that the top of the hive stand is effectively a tray once the inspection board is in and being enclosed on three sides there are no seroious draughts - the front of the 'tray' is blocked off so I don't get bees undershooting the hive and trying to get in through the mesh floor. Plus ..it's rock solid and stable ... It meets all the things I think are good for my bees.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/99514363@N06/albums/72157644503927472

Indeed the Paynes bottom boards are annoying. Some are fine, but some are too close. I’ll be looking into replacing it with a thinner board (looking for the right material now).

 

[GuyNir]

Assembled and painted some more boxes. Assembled some more frames because you can never have too many. The freight train is coming and I better be ready.

 

[pargyle]

Indeed the Paynes bottom boards are annoying. Some are fine, but some are too close. I’ll be looking into replacing it with a thinner board (looking for the right material now).

Yes ... either the slot needs to be bigger or the board needs to be thinner .. as I no longer bother with the original set up I've not gone anywhere looking for an alternative material. You might consider white faced hardboard - available in 8' x 4' sheets. I would give the hardboard side of it a coat of varnish though to stop it aborbing any moisture.

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Gen...rdboard-Sheet---3mm-x-610mm-x-1220mm/p/110403

 

[RichardBowes]

Always interesting to read the OMF for and against , nobody is really sure as the question would have been closed along time ago - lots of people have very strong views resulting in a lot of head shaking when I say varroa board in for winter with a hive stand of 15” and clear from vegetation underneath- resulting in no cold air funnel effect chilling the hive which I believe you get with a low sitting hive .

 

[Antipodes]

Camped out in the rainforest collecting leatherwood. Top fun. The camp area was in a silver wattle cluster with beautiful circular lichen on them. Lovely to see the capped honey and cute snowberries...Gaultheria hispida

 

[Erichalfbee]

What a lovely frame.
I have ONE leatherwood tree in the garden and it blooms in late summer which is a bonus for the bees