Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => UK / EUROPEAN BEEKEEPING => Topic started by: johnnie1uk on June 14, 2014, 04:42:28 pm
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Any one any experience of wax foundation melting, what air temperatures were you experiencing.
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happened in southern australia last year the temps where 40-45c the wax softenes and can no longer support the weight of the honey it contains so colapses drowning the bees in their own honey or so the story goes
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Thanks for that info - It was 38c here yesterday so fingers crossed their Aircon was on
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Bees keep the internal temp at 34*C so 38 would be OK - wax melts at 62*C
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>Any one any experience of wax foundation melting, what air temperatures were you experiencing.
It can happen almost anytime if it's left in the sun. If you go here: http://www.bushfarms.com/beesterms.htm#b and look at the entry for beeswax you will see the melting point of beeswax is 145?F (63?C).