Hot Hives

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks,

Was just flicking through some photos and found a pic of 3 of my hives that I had on a neighbour?s place. The date was January 1st, 2020. They got a little warm when the big fire went through.



Was lucky enough to save the hives at home. Saw a neighbour?s hive go up like a Roman Candle. The little critters didn?t have a chance.

[Acebird]

Maybe they absconded before the fire reach them.  The problem is where could they have gone?

[BeeMaster2]

Anywhere,  they carry everything they need to make a new home. They can easily fly 5 miles to find a new site. Most forest Fire?s don?t extend that far in every direction. The biggest problem is how far can the queen fly while still in full egg production. She needs to bee able to fly far enough to bee able to find a safe landing spot while the scouts decide which direction to go..
Jim Altmiller

[Acebird]

They can  easily fly 5 miles to find a new site.

Foragers sure.  Egg laying queen, I don't know.

[Ben Framed]

Wow!  It's good you were able to save yours Les... 

[Lesgold]

The bees wouldn?t have made it out. The fire came too quickly. This was a big fire and burnt out 500,000 hectares. (About 1,200,000 acres). I was lucky. The fire was on all sides of the property but roads and a lucky wind break saved us.

[The15thMember]

Oh, that's so horrible. 

[BeeMaster2]

About 1,200,000 acres.
Wow that is a large fire. How fast were the winds?
I?ll bet they were high.
Here in Florida we have a watch out rule of 30,15,30.
More than 30 days no rain.
Winds in excess of 15 mile per hour.
Humidity less than 30%.
If you have all three, a fire can easily over take you if you get down wind of it.
If you ask one of your fire fighters they have a similar watch out but it may bee a little bit different.
Jim Altmiller

[Lesgold]

Yes it was and still is a horrible memory for a lot of the community. Some people are still struggling to deal with the aftermath of the fires but we are all trying to move on with a positive outlook.

[Lesgold]

We were in a pretty severe drought at the time and the forests hadn?t burnt for about 20 years. The fire had been burning for about 6 weeks in remote areas to the west of us. Firefighters couldn?t access the area to control it. We all knew that if conditions changed, we?d end up with the perfect storm. Strong, dry northwesterly winds intensified the fire and it arrived quickly. This fire was only one of many that were burning at the time. Over 45,000,000 acres were burned in 2019.