BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS
Bees fanning at night
derekm:
--- Quote from: clong on March 26, 2019, 02:04:06 pm ---I have a fairly populous colony in Beemax 10-frame mediums. There is a 4"x3/8" entrance. No ventilation at the top. There are enough bees to occupy 3 of the boxes. I recently added 2 more.
Twice in the last week or so, I have encountered the bees fanning at the entrance. Should I consider providing top ventilation?
Based on Derek Mitchell's recent work, I am inclined to leave them as they are, but I would like to hear from others, especially those that use insulated hives.
I know he posted on here in the past. Does anyone here know how to reach Derek?
Thanks.
--- End quote ---
Safest bet is go with what bees in trees like - every time I investigate the their stuff with lots of engineering/physics I find they have a good solution already.
The engineering says giving top ventilation in insulated nests is bad, worse than wooden hives. Honey bees live in mega insulated nests - Trees and guess what? swarms actively Seek out bottom entrances over top entrances.
Fanning is part of their natural behaviour to move humidity and so I would leave them be. They know what they are doing when in insulated nests.
I did an article on this in American bee journal in 2017. Honey Bee Engineering: Top Ventilation and top Entrances
Listen to this podcast from Tom Seeley, about 40minutes in
http://beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/dr-tom-d-seeley-honey-bees-in-the-wild-019
Anything else ?
Sour Kraut:
Your location would help to formulate a better answer (List Supervisors, can this be added ???)
But a 4 x 3/8 entrance with 3 mediums full of bees seems pretty small.
clong:
--- Quote from: derekm on March 29, 2019, 03:07:19 pm ---Based on Derek Mitchell's recent work, I am inclined to leave them as they are, but I would like to hear from others, especially those that use insulated hives.
I know he posted on here in the past. Does anyone here know how to reach Derek?
Thanks.
--- End quote ---
Safest bet is go with what bees in trees like - every time I investigate the their stuff with lots of engineering/physics I find they have a good solution already.
The engineering says giving top ventilation in insulated nests is bad, worse than wooden hives. Honey bees live in mega insulated nests - Trees and guess what? swarms actively Seek out bottom entrances over top entrances.
Fanning is part of their natural behaviour to move humidity and so I would leave them be. They know what they are doing when in insulated nests.
I did an article on this in American bee journal in 2017. Honey Bee Engineering: Top Ventilation and top Entrances
Listen to this podcast from Tom Seeley, about 40minutes in
http://beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/dr-tom-d-seeley-honey-bees-in-the-wild-019
Anything else ?
[/quote]
Mr. Mitchell,
Thank you so much for the reply. I've gone through 3 winters with no top vent, but I've always flipped the inner cover to the vent-open side no later than June 1st. But those were smaller hives. In any case, you've persuaded me. I'm going to stick it out with bottom ventilation only.
Over the last several days, regardless of the temperature there have been approximately the same number of bees fanning at the entrance (4-8 bees) with more just inside.
The only question now is, without the chimney effect to remove some of the moisture, how do they get the water out of the hive? Is it all by simple air exchange? Do they use condensation as well?
I"ve read most of your articles and papers. Based largely on your writings, all my Langstroth boxes are insulated now.
Thanks again.
Sour Kraut, Location is just west of Richmond, VA
BeeMaster2:
Don?t,
Little John from the UK posted a thread here on BeeMaster several years ago about how the bees use water evaporation to cool hives. Basically he explained that the first thing that happens when water evaporates is that it is heavier than air and it sinks inside the hive. It isn?t until it reaches Ambient air temperature that it rises.
If I can find the post I will add a link.
Jim Altmiller
BeeMaster2:
Here is the thread.
https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=51383.msg454328#msg454328
Jim Altmiller
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version