Any suggestions for dealing with the heat?

[alexinmadison]

Given the promised heat wave, are there any "best practices" I should know about to protect my girls?

Thanks in advance for all advice.

Alex

[Matthew Hennek]

You can provide a water source.

If bearding, prop up outer cover a bit.

Bees are resilient little creatures used to living in much hotter climates than what Wisconsin calls a heat wave.

[William Palmer]

Use the entrance reducer to prop open the telescopic cover. This will aid in hive ventilation.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "madbees" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to madbees+u...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[James]

Practices to increase ventilation should've been done well before the first flow ever started.  Upper entrances, propping up the cover, and off-setting supers are all good techniques to increase air flow.  But maybe the wisest advice is not to mess with your hives the next few days.  Bees get as b&tchy as people do in the heat, so don't bother them.  If they're bearding, don't freak out no matter how bad you think it looks.  It's normal.  And this isn't a prolonged heat wave.  And frankly, the weather forecasters are a bit over the top in their rhetoric.  The hot weather will moderate in a couple of days, and then if you're concerned, you can go into a much calmer hive situation.  I'm kind of looking forward to it.  Lotta second crop alfalfa in full bloom, a little rain and high temps.  Sounds like honey to me!

[john smith]

I make 3 inch shims with 6 one inch holes covered with 1/8" screen on all of my hives. I keep these on all summer to keep the air flow moving through the hive.

[BETSY TRUE]

I use something like this too, out of old brood boxes that are cut down.

> On Jul 21, 2016, at 6:19 AM, john smith <johnosm...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I make 3 inch shims with 6 one inch holes covered with 1/8" screen on all of my hives. I keep these on all summer to keep the air flow moving through the hive.
>

[William Palmer]

Lot of Alfalfa in full bloom.  Should bee a sweet reward for our hard working bees.  They seem to like the hot weather.

[jeanne hansen]

Where are our club members with the brood minder temperature monitors?  Let's hear from them.  What were internal hive temperatures like on hot days recently, according to the data?

 

Thanks!
Jeanne Hansen
824 Jacobson Ave
Madison, WI 53714
608-244-5094

---

From: BETSY TRUE <bt...@wisc.edu>
To: Madbees <mad...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2016 7:11 AM
Subject: Re: [madbees] Any suggestions for dealing with the heat?

I use something like this too, out of old brood boxes that are cut down.




> On Jul 21, 2016, at 6:19 AM, john smith <johnosm...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I make 3 inch shims with 6 one inch holes covered with 1/8" screen on all of my hives.  I keep these on all summer to keep the air flow moving through the hive. 
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "madbees" group.

> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to madbees+unsub...@googlegroups.com.

> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "madbees" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to madbees+unsub...@googlegroups.com.

[BETSY TRUE]

Mine are sitting on the shelf, I'll try to remember to put them in next time I work the bees.

Get Outlook for iOS

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to madbees+u...@googlegroups.com.

[Matthew Hennek]

Dale marsdens data is online and open to the public.

http://app.beekeeping.io/apiary/overview

[Matthew Hennek]

Unfortunately it looks like the last reading on dales hive thats published on that site is in April for some reason.

[Mike Fuller]

Hello, this is Mike Fuller and I'm on the BroodMinder team.  We've been swapping out devices to our 2nd Gen model, so our demo site isn't up to date.  If anyone has local data to share, we'd appreciate it.  Should be interesting to see what data is collected over the next few days. 

[Paul Zelenski]

Bees love the hot dry weather as long as you have plenty of ventilation. This is when they turbo charge the comb building and honey storage. The hot dry weather really seems to increase honey production. I sometimes wonder if the flowers produce more concentrated nectar during the hot dry spells. If you have a screened bottom board and propped up the telescoping cover with a stick or the entrance reducer, your bees will be fine. No need to do anything else. I suppose, I am assuming there is a water source within range for them, as well. I do like to avoid inspections when it is really hot. Partly for my own comfort and partly for the bees. On really hot days, you'll notice the bees come pouring out of the hives and bearding once you're done. I think we mess up their organization and cooling capabilities when we inspect and it takes a day or so to get things back to the way they want them. 

On Jul 21, 2016, at 7:48 AM, William Palmer <easttr...@gmail.com> wrote:

Lot of Alfalfa in full bloom.  Should bee a sweet reward for our hard working bees.  They seem to like the hot weather.

--

[BETSY TRUE]

Dan, the bee inspector said that I shouldn’t expect the bees to cap the honey supers off these hot days because they’ll not evaporate (I have several that are just short of needing the escape board). They’ll be carrying water trying to cool the hives instead of collecting nectar.

[jeanne hansen]

My personal belief is that evaporating nectar would cool the hive just as much as evaporating water.  I'm sure some bees are bringing in water for cooing, but I agree with Paul Z, that hot weather seems to mean honey coming into the hive.

 

Thanks!
Jeanne Hansen
824 Jacobson Ave
Madison, WI 53714
608-244-5094

---

From: BETSY TRUE <bt...@wisc.edu>
To: Madbees <mad...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2016 1:16 PM

Subject: Re: [madbees] Any suggestions for dealing with the heat?

[Greg V]

Forget the heat.
What about that wind?
For one, i have a toppled apple tree (my #2 top producer). Hope still fixable. Sniff.
Will see the real damage in the morning.

On Wednesday, July 20, 2016 at 6:32:01 PM UTC-5, alexinmadison wrote:

[James]

Stand out in a blooming alfalfa field on days like today and you can smell the sweetness!  Heat+alfalfa=honey.  And its so deeply rooted that only the most extreme droughts will shut you off.  The key is timely rains that prevent the farmers from cutting the hay.  (Sorry, but that's the way it goes).  I wouldn't go near the hives right now, but next week they'll need more supers.  Might start harvesting just to cut the stack down.  

[Matthew Hennek]

Interesting article on water and bees:
http://m.phys.org/news/2016-07-collector-bees-quench-hot-hive.html

[Paul Zelenski]

Interesting. I didn't think they put water in the comb;

"the hive was stock-piling water in the brood comb."

> On Jul 23, 2016, at 9:03 AM, Matthew Hennek <matthew...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Interesting article on water and bees:
> http://m.phys.org/news/2016-07-collector-bees-quench-hot-hive.html
>

[Greg V]

Here: http://eeb.lu.lv/EEB/201212/EEB_10_Abou-Shaara.pdf
Find Figure 2 for a quick idea how tolerant the bees are to temperature.

[Matthew Hennek]

Not good to mess with them in this heat/humidity. They are very pissy. I had to go put some boxes on today and managed to get stung 3 times through my Bee suit!
Arm, back, and stomach...stomach really smarts.

Another thing I've observed is that in my larger hives the queens have pretty much shut down laying. My 5 frame nucs are still laying and drawing out comb like crazy; I pull 2 frames of capped brood from each of them every week or two.